The Female Gaze - Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power

• Date: 06 March 19:15 - 21:45
• Location: Filmhuis Den Haag

In her lecture "Sex and Power: The Visual Language of Oppression," filmmaker Nina Menkes dissects the ways in which the visual language of films is mostly a tool of the heterosexual, male gaze. Footage from that startling reading forms the framework of this documentary, illustrated with some 175 film clips and interviews with filmmakers such as Catherine Hardwicke and Julie Dash, and film theorist Laura Mulvey, whose famous essay on the male gaze forms the basis of Menkes' analysis. Using footage from various classics, Menkes attests that women are systematically filmed differently than men.

Prior to the documentary, there will be a lecture by Dana Linssen on The Female Gaze.

Female Gaze

While not all directors leave an equally visible mark on their work, their choices are all-important to the work you get to see. They decide not only what you see in the frame, but also which characters get an explored story. In the modern world, however, only 11 percent of directors are women. As such, the "male gaze" is still the norm.

In an effort to change the status quo in this regard, Filmhuis Den Haag is focusing on a program in the context of Women's Day that spotlights women in front of and behind the camera. All films will be introduced by Dana Linssen, film journalist and writer.

For the rest of the program, see here.

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