Category Archives: Documentary

Shinjuku Boys (dir. Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams, 1995)

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Running Time: 53 min

Producer: K. Longinotto, by Twentieth Century Vixen for the BBC
Color, 16mm

Kim Longinotto’s Shinjuku Boys is one of several documentaries she has made about versions of women’s sexuality in Japan. In this short film, she introduces her audience to the lives of three annabes, women who dress and live as men, though who do not identify as lesbians. Gaish, Tatsu, and Kazuki work at the New Marilyn Nightclub in the Shunjuku section of Tokyo. They are “hosts” at the nightclub; their job is to entertain the clientele, making them feel welcome and cared for. Their patrons are straight, young or middle-aged women. As Kazuki says with a comfortable smile, “Each customer thinks we’re her special boyfriend. They’re wrong”.

Most of the documentary simply follows the annabes around their lives—in fact, long shots are taken of the subjects just walking around Tokyo. Longinotto’s goal seems to be to give us a very intimate sense of each subject’s personality, both in how they deal with customers at the club and in their outside lives, and she is very succesful in this goal. We see Tatsu getting a haircut and chatting with his barber about his hormone injections, and also preparing dinner with his serious girlfriend. Gaish goes on a date that we follow, which ends in his (or possibly his date’s) bedroom. With Kazuki, we watch his costuming process and meet his girlfriend, who is a drag queen.

In some sections of the movie, there are framed interviews. These are more or less informal, filmed in a variety of locations, though none of them are in studios. The interviewer is off-screen, but we do hear the questions posed to the subjects in Japanese. Gaish and Kazuki both have joint interviews with their girlfriends in addition to their individual interviews. The men talk about a variety of issues, including sexual practices and difficulties, long-term relationship plans, the effects of hormone injections, and the reactions of their families to their annabe status.

One major failing of this film is its lack of cultural context. There is no larger discussion of gender relations or queer culture in Japan, and as a result most Western viewers are left with an incomplete understanding of what precisely differentiates these women from a lesbian or transvestite/transsexual culture in Tokyo. The meaning of the word “annabe” is left vague, and the lack of background information makes me feel actually uncomfortable watching the film: I’m afraid of seeing these men through the cultural stereotypes I may bring to the table.

Bibliography:

A good look at Longinotto’s career as a whole, and trends within these six films:
Morris, Gary. “Rebel Girls: Six Documentaries by Kim Longinotto”. Bright Lights Film Journal, (49), 2005 Aug, (no pagination) (Electronic publication.)

White, Patricia. “Cinema Solidarity: The Documentary Practice of Kim Longinotto”. Cinema Journal, (46:1), 2006 Fall, 120-28. 2006

The official word from Women Make Movies:
On Shinuku Boys
On Longinotto

IMDB listing

Girls Like Us (Dir: Jane C. Wagner and Tina DiFeliciantonio, 1997)

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Running Time: 57 min

Color, Video

Synopsis: Girls Like Us is an observational documentary that explores the ideologies young girls develop about their sexuality and how gender norms imposed by their family and/ or society shape their experiences. The film documents four years in the lives of four working-class teenage girls from diverse ethnic backgrounds residing in South Philadelphia. By following the girls between the ages 14 and 18, the film depicts the transitions that take place during each girl’s journey to womanhood. The documentary provide a multi-faceted view of teenage sexuality and presents themes such as coping with teen pregnancy, adhering to religious ideals, being treated differently than the males in their families, and either achieving or failing to reach educational goals.
First, we are introduced to Raelene (European/ American Indian descent) through a series of interviews and candid footage. Raelene’s story is the saddest of them all. During the four years, Raelene becomes pregnant twice starting at 14 years old and has numerous boyfriends, some of whom abusive. After giving birth to her first child, Raelene drops out of school at 15. Between the ages of 16 and 17, while getting a check-up during her second pregnancy, she explains that she has never experienced an orgasm. This statement was interesting because it made me question Raelene’s incentive for sleeping with many different men and paying the consequences by getting pregnant if she did not enjoy the experience? By 18 years old, a tired and weathered Raelene, moves to live the Pocono Mountains with her fiancé, her two children by two different men, and his children.
Anna (Vietnamese-American), a good student who hopes to one day attend medical school, is between with her parents’ traditional ideas of how she should use her sexuality and the desire to fit in with the more promiscuous American cultural expressions of sexuality. Although some of her friends are not so lucky, she achieves her goal of attending college by the end of the film. Lisa (Italian-American) is also a dedicated student who starts romantically experimenting with boys at the tender age of 12. She soon learns that some men can be unfaithful. By18 years old, Lisa also attends college. De’yona (African-American) attends a performing arts school and is a gifted singer who aspires to have a profession in music. But after De-yona’s closest cousin dies, her grades decline. She unexpectedly becomes pregnant and her dreams are derailed.
Girls Like Us provides a realistic snapshot of sexuality through the eyes of adolescents. Although it explores many important themes, the film allows the viewers to make their own conclusions.

References:
IMDB listing
McRobbie, Angela. Top Girls? “Young Women and the post-feminist sexual contract” Cultural Studies 21, no. 4/5 (Jul, 2007).
Official Website, Women Make Movies, “Girls Like Us” Review.
Sweeney, Kathleen. “Maiden USA: representing teenage girls in the ’90s”. Afterimage (United States) 26 Jan/Feb (1999): 10-13
The Austin Chronicle Website, “Girls Like Us” Review.

Desire (Dir: Julie Gustafson, 2005)

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Running Time: 85 min

Teenage Girls’ Documentary Project
Color, VHS/DVD

This intimate documentary follows the lives of five teenage girls from the New Orleans area during five years of their lives, beginning around the time they are finishing middle school or starting high school. While the director Julie Gustafson is making a film about the young women’s lives, the five women are also learning how to make videos as part of the Teenage Girls’ Documentary Project, and are shooting and editing their own short videos. Throughout the documentary the short films made by the young women, in the form mostly of interviews or video essays, are interwoven into the narrative. This technique allows Gustafson to construct the narrative around issues each of the girls’ are dealing with in their lives, but the viewer also gets to actually see how the girls themselves wish to visually represent their lives and the things they are struggling with on a daily basis.

The five teenage girls are from very different backgrounds, both socioeconmically and culturally. The title of the documentary is taken from the housing projects, Desire, where two of the young women featured, live. One of the other young girls is from the working-class suburb of Belle Chase, while the other two seem to be quite privileged and live in the city of New Orleans. Issues of being a young mother, sexual orientation, sexuality, eating disorders, family expectations, poverty, being a first generation immigrant and romantic relationships, are all featured in the documentary.

The documentary does not desire to do more than show and share these young women’s lives. Even though they all live in New Orleans, their struggles are all so different, yet are united by the common thread of seeking to feel happy and fulfilled in their lives as they get older. During the five years that viewers follow the participants, the girls face incredible changes as they transition from girls to women (with some of the having to “become” women a lot earlier than others, having to live on their own, take care of their children and be completely responsible for themselves, while other continue to live at home after they graduate from high school). Gustafson seems to want to share with viewers the deep affection she has for all five women, and the attachment she had after spending five years following and also teaching these young women.

References: Women Make Movies: http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c676.shtml

Shape of Water, The (Dir: Kum-Kum Bhavani, 2006)

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The Shape of Water is a 2006 documentary that gives a face and a voice to the struggles and grassroots activism of women from a number of conflicted global zones. The film ties together stories from four countries, India, Brazil, Senegal, Palestine, following the situations, activities, and personal outlooks of a variety of women engaged in a variety of social, ecological and political activism in support of women’s and human rights. The film is unique in its strong focus on the individual political situations, subjective histories, and local conflicts that shape each of its subjects’ narratives, while simultaneously investing itself in a vision of global women’s work in defense of their communities, environments, cultures, families, and bodies.

Dona Antonia, who lives in the Brazilian rainforest, speaks on behalf of the rubber tappers’ movement against agri-business, the destruction of the rainforest, and corporate exploitation of both workers and the forest in which they work. Dona Antonia has been involved for many years with this truly grassroots campaign, and gives viewers a history of the movement as well as the individual narrative of her life as an activist, mother, wife, and rubber tapper. Her narrations and personal recollections are interwoven with those of Oraiza, a young rubber tapper and mother living in the rainforest. Oraiza works non-stop for 12 to 16 hours a day, continuing the cycle of subsistence crucial to herself and her family. Dona Antonia and the filmmaker expose the threat posed to organic, small-scale rubber tappers such as Oraiza by the interests of big business and financially-motivated governmental policy, while elaborating on the history and future of the strongly egalitarian and solidarity-driven resistance movement among the rubber tappers.

The film explores of women’s activism against genital cutting practices in Senegal, making visible a number of women-led projects from the rap group ALIF, based in the capital, who make strong statements against cutting through their engaging performances, to women’s groups in small, rural communities, whose discussions negotiate and enact the conflicted discourses on front lines of the anti-cutting movement. Those who oppose cutting practices must navigate a new territory beyond a tradition sanctified by time-honored cultural custom and sustained by vocational restrictions on women, standing against both the patriarchal cultural expectations and capitalist economic realities of contemporary Senegal in their struggle to reaffirm their rights to their own bodies. The Shape of Water documents these struggles and their participants with strong focus on the voices of the involved women themselves.

In Israel/Palestine, a group of women of Arab and Israeli Jewish backgrounds have come together to form the group Women in Black, protesting the Israeli occupation of Palestine specifically and the violence that characterizes it in general. Dressing in all black to mourn the ongoing conflict’s countless victims, both Arab and Israeli, and carrying black signs bearing slogans, the women make a simple statement against the occupation by standing together in public spaces. These women have had to deal with aggressive and sometimes violent negative reactions from right-wing and pro-occupation members of the public, who attack the protestors with everything from verbal sexual harassment to physical violence. Despite these obstacles, the Women in Black have not faltered in their weekly demonstrations; now, active branches of this group exist around the globe, speaking out against destructive local conflicts and worldwide violence. Rather than associating themselves with a specific ideology or party line, the Women in Black advocate a reconciliatory approach to social conflicts that transcends ideology.

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Finally, The Shape of Water takes us to India, where we encounter the work of two separate groups: the SEWA women’s collective, based all over India, and the Navdanya farm in the rural Himalayas. The SEWA (Self Employed Womens Association) is a hybrid labor union and social movement, its members drawn from hundreds of thousands of poor, self-employed women surviving from their work in small shops, businesses, and other micro-scale labor situations. The women who join SEWA represent a class of the populace who sustain themselves and their families outside of employment by the powerful international corporations that have overtaken much of India’s production economy. SEWA seeks to protect this way of life by providing all of its members with full self-supportability, including health care, child care, shelter, and work/income security—a radical goal, unfortunately, given the climate of drastic poverty and opposition often faced by SEWA’s members. Nonetheless, SEWA has been remarkably successful in achieving its goals, and due to the immense strength of the solidarity generated by its members, has become and continues to grow as a powerful, united women’s movement. The film excellently documents the history, practice, and current efforts of SEWA through many interviews with its committed, outspoken members.

The Navdanya farm, in the Himalayas, is another example of a women’s collective committed to providing and sustaining alternatives to globalized economic modes of production. Grounded in the deeply ecological-feminist thought of its founder, Dr. Vandana Shiva, the farm specifically works to preserve the native biodiversity of its region, especially in regards to the food crops that have been cultivated there for hundreds of years. In the past few years, the agricultural regions of India have been severely and doubly hurt by the actions of large biochemical corporations: the introduction of genetically modified crops has crippled the growth of native crops, while the legal patents on these genetically modified plants have forced the once-autonomous farmers who grow them into a kind of legal serfdom or sharecropperhood. The Navdanya farm project attempts to nourish and sustain native crops while simultaneously empowering its women workers, resisting globalized and genetically modified incursion on rural Indian soil, and fostering rural Indian and women’s self-reliance.

In sum, The Shape of Water offers a compelling vision of the power of women’s activism worldwide. The film shatters typical Western conceptions of third-world women as passive, pitiable recipients of suffering, instead affirming the vital and active nature of women’s work against domination locally and worldwide. Additionally, the strong focus on the link between human survival and ecological survival that is advocated in some way by all of the women in the film cannot be understressed. The film occasionally employs a rhetoric of dichotomy between the ‘feminine’/’natural’ as opposed to the ‘masculine’/’industrial’, while other times advancing a view that transcends binaries in favor of the reconciliation and co-lateral healing of human and ecological communities. The Shape of Water should thus be of prime interest to any study of contemporary eco-feminism. It would also be useful for explorations of third-world narratives, voices, and struggles, particularly those belonging to women; alternately, in a more economically-minded setting, the film could serve as an excellent complement to any study of the impacts of globalization on third-world communities and ways of life.

Internet Resources

http://www.theshapeofwatermovie.comFilm official site

http://www.sewa.org
SEWA homepage

http://www.navdanya.org Navdanya homepage

Tripod Resources

Mies, Maria and Vandana Shiva. Ecofeminism. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Zed Books, 1993.

Mohanty, Chandra Talpade, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres. Third World women and the politics of feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991

Ruether, Rosemary R. Women healing earth : Third World women on ecology, feminism, and religion.Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1996

Tropic of Capricorn (Dir: Kika Nicolela, 2005)

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Running Time: 30 min

 

Tropic of Capricorn is a short documentary by Kika Nicolela that tells the tales of Brazilian transsexuals. The filmmaker rented out a hotel room. Over the course of an evening four transsexuals are brought in one-by-one. They lie upon the bed and tell their stories to the camera which is mounted on the ceiling, echoing the film’s title, “Tropic of Capricorn,” the southernmost point at which the sun can appear directly overhead.

The transsexual subjects that the camera is poised on are quite visually odd. However, challenging the viewer’s expectation, this visual oddity is not rooted in their transexuality. Instead, they “glow.” Through the use of video filters, each character radiates their own unique color. And so not only are we put in a strange position as a viewer but also the transsexual subjects are made equally strange. The setting equal of the strangeness of the viewer and the subject is telling. It is an early sign in the film of the politics of “setting equal” and “seeing as the same”.
They crawl into bed or cuddle. Some splay out while others straddle. All take their own unique position upon the bed and all tell their story. In regards to the topic at hand, the bed seems to be of great importance. It serves as a location of comfort, home and intimacy. Moreover, for the transsexuals interviewed that worked as prostitutes the bed is even more familiar. It is the workplace. The intimacy that the bed affords adds to the identification of the viewer to the interviewee. Moreover, the lack of camera movement which places the locus solely on the bed and the transsexual offers a similar intimacy.
From above, the glowing transsexual looks not so much different than sensational fictional alien autopsy: odd colors, strange anatomy. At first this may cause a resistance and designation of otherness for the viewer. However, the aforementioned intimacy that is established refuses this. “All I really wanted to do was work abroad and settle down…thats it,” says Jessica as she glows red. It is hard to imagine this not being a universal sentiment of all persons. It is not a transsexual speaking but a human being and perhaps they’re not that different after all. And so taboo has been confronted. A fearful situation is established. The audience is thrust into a dark room with a sexually “other” person and the bed is right there. Oh No! But soon enough, through the gripping conversations that the interviewees have, the focus is shifted from the visual and superficial to something deeper seated.
Since the films release in 2005 it has been honored, among other places, at the Sopot Independent Film Festival as “Best Documentary” and has been nominated as “Best Film” at both the International Experimental Film Festival Carbunari and Mostra do Filme Livre. Such films, especially addressing such taboo topics often find little distribution space and eventually see quite a small audience in places like festivals. However, the advent of Internet media films like this can be found much more easily by those seeking media addressing such topics. As of April 2007, The film is legally available in its entirely on multiple streaming Internet sites such as youtube.com.

Black, Bold and Beautiful (Dir: Nadine Valcin, 1999)

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Running Time: 40 min

Format: Color, VHS

Black, Bold and Beautiful depicts a relationship that few films venture to explore: the relationship between black women and their hair. The multitude of styles and their social implications are discussed in this riveting documentary. Valcin, through six different women of varying ages, illustrates the effects hair can have on the lives of black women. Using interviews, narration, and personal pictures and videos, Valcin manages to beautifully tell the histories and struggles of black women and their hair. Social and racial, as well as private and familial issues are explored, and in the process Valcin is able to “comb” through to the root of the problem. Far more than a mere accessory, some women find their hair defines them, while others refuse to fall into society’s expectations of them. The six women interviewed, all falling between 16 and 60 years old, had very different experiences with their hair, but could agree on one thing: it is a large and important part of them.

While some chose to go “natural” and others to “relax” their hair, the social aspects of the choices can not be ignored. Because society tells women that straight hair is beautiful, black women straighten and perm their hair. This social pressure, which all the women recognize and discuss, is the main reason women struggle constantly with their hair. This struggle, which not only occurs within, but amongst mothers and daughters, can greatly affect relationships. Auna, one of the women in Black, Bold, and Beautiful, attested to the difficulties that hair caused between she and her mother.

This is a beautiful and personal film. It wonderfully introduces issues and questions the effects of society’s perception of beauty.

 

“Amazing that a documentary about hair can say so much about politics, race and culture.”
Antonia Zerbisias
The Toronto Star

” An entertaining and informative primer on the do’s and don’ts of Black hair….Filmmaker Nadine Valcin runs her comb through some of the tangled dilemmas surrounding Black hairstyles.”
Starweek Magazine

I Had an Abortion (Dir: Gillian Aldrich and Jennifer Baumgardner, 2005)

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Running Time: 55 min

Original Medium: VHS/DVD
Language: English

Speak Out: I Had an Abortion eloquently tells the real stories of women who have had an abortion and want to share their stories with other women and bring an end to the shame associated with the procedure. The movie itself is a reclamation of women’s reproductive rights and freedoms as well as each individual woman’s assertion of her body and her pride in it. The documentary makes an obvious effort to appeal to all women by documenting the lives of very different women, including an elderly woman, a married suburban mother, and a single college student. The film does a great job of showing how and why women seek to have an abortion as well as why they later try and hide the fact that they did have an abortion. The film draws attention to this shame by having several of the women wear a shirt with print across the front, stating “I Had an Abortion.”

This film would be ideal in a Women’s Studies course that examines second and third wave feminism and the similarities and differences in the strategies and tactics each movement employs. Baumgardner, one of the directors of the film, is from an older generation of women that fought for women’s rights during the second wave of feminism in the 1970s. These women’s tactics can be seen as much more radical and cutting edge when viewed in contrast to the strategies and tactics of third wave feminism. This debate continues to play out today as many mainstream feminists object to Baumgardner’s in-your-face approach to the film but more specifically to her promotion of the “I Had an Abortion” t-shirts. This radical vs. mainstream, second vs. third wave feminism tension can be explored through the viewing of this movie.

This movie could also be instrumental in breaking down negative perceptions of both female sexuality and female reproductive freedom. Many of the stories told by the women include anecdotes of a complete lack of knowledge regarding sexuality. By widely promoting this film and showing it in a public context, the shameful secrets associated with female sexuality and, by extension, female reproductive freedom, can be deconstructed, dispelled, and disbanded.

Related links for more information:

The first link provides a background on the film and briefly shares the stories of several of the women. The last two links explore the tension created by Baumgardner’s t-shirts and illustrate the radical vs. moderate divide in the feminist and women’s movement.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0604,martin,71811,6.html
http://www.bitchmagazine.com/archives/12_04abortiontees/index.shtml
http://dir.salon.com/story/mwt/feature/2004/09/20/t_shirts/index.html

Amazonia (Dir: Nandini Sikand, 2001)

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Running Time: 8 min

Original Format: Color & B/W, 35 mm

Related Subjects: Health, women’s health issues, body image, breast cancer

Description:

Amazonian women were legendary warriors who were said to have cut off their breasts in order to become more skilled archers. In her film titled “Amazonia”, Sikand presents her sister’s experience with breast cancer in an unusual but moving style. The film is experimental and incorporates lines of prose with video of urban environments and more personal visions of her sister’s body. Sikand cleverly superimposes images to compare the urban environment with the landscape of the patient’s body. She is also creative with the overlay of sound in “Amazonia”. At the beginning of the film, she uses tropical sounds in the background overlaying both the urban imagery and the depiction of the internal environment of the human body. Later, the nature sounds are replaced by the honking of car horns, sirens, and other sounds associated with a busy metropolis. These grating noises and the grittiness of the city images help to compare Sikand’s sister’s scarred physicality with the dirtiness and scarring of an urban jungle. She depicts women battling breast cancer as warriors equivalent to the fierce Amazons.

Sikand demonstrates the pain involved with illness in a hopeful and triumphant manner, emphasizing survival. She presents the concepts ying and yang as compared to the symmetrical right and left breasts. She then unveils the physical effects of breast cancer, showing a front on view of her sister’s body, post- treatment. This image is accompanied by a face shown half in light and half in shadow. The sister slowly removes her wig, showing her baldness as a shocking testimony to the effects of cancer treatment on her body. These images are consistent with the idea of inner conflict and the depiction of women battling breast cancer as amazons defending their territory. Sikand alternates black and white with vivid color. The black and white portions of the film lend a starkness to the images, but the contrasting color scenes are full of life. The film is moving in its depiction of what Nandini Sikand’s sister has lost to cancer, and serves to inspire women in their battle.

Quotes from Critics:

“…provides a new way to imagine the lives of those in pain with ongoing serious illnesses. It offers a textured imagery of crowds and cities and struggle, of fighting and nobility it’s not about being a victim. Illness brings pain and loss, but it is also full of life.”
Julia Lesage
English Dept, University of
Oregon

“… a visually stunning video, shuttling between chillingly sharp digital photography and warm, poignant, almost pointalist images… Evocative of both individual memory and the history of gendered bodies, it claims, in its short length, both the Lyric and the Manifesto, as it engages questions of breast cancer.”Joseph BolesNorthern Arizona University

Bibliographic resource:

Tummala- Narra, P., Bewtra, A., and Akhtar, S. 2006. The celluloid
Ganges: an annotated filmography of the Indian diaspora. International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies. 2(3): 297-310.