1 00:00:50,092 --> 00:00:53,220 As a filmmaker and as a woman, 2 00:00:53,303 --> 00:00:58,725 I found myself drowning in a powerful vortex 3 00:00:58,809 --> 00:01:01,520 of visual language, 4 00:01:01,603 --> 00:01:05,023 from which it is very difficult to escape. 5 00:01:13,782 --> 00:01:16,785 Yeah, Lara, are you there? 6 00:01:16,868 --> 00:01:19,580 I'm just sitting here hoping to hear from you, 7 00:01:19,663 --> 00:01:21,516 I don't care if it's three o'clock in the morning 8 00:01:21,540 --> 00:01:24,668 because, I've been thinking about all the things 9 00:01:24,751 --> 00:01:27,337 that could possibly happen to you because of this, 10 00:01:27,421 --> 00:01:29,798 and I don't want you to ruin 11 00:01:29,881 --> 00:01:32,759 your whole acting career over it. 12 00:01:34,469 --> 00:01:36,346 You know, all they have to do is call sag 13 00:01:36,430 --> 00:01:40,309 and pull your card and from now on, 14 00:01:40,392 --> 00:01:41,476 for the rest of your life, 15 00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:45,856 you'll come up not cleared for work and that's the end. 16 00:01:49,943 --> 00:01:54,656 This visual language, this cinematic visual language, 17 00:01:54,740 --> 00:01:57,784 dictates to us ways of seeing 18 00:01:57,868 --> 00:02:04,124 that are so specific, it almost feels like a law. 19 00:02:50,295 --> 00:02:54,383 The great writer James Baldwin once said, 20 00:02:54,466 --> 00:02:57,844 "not everything can be changed, 21 00:02:57,928 --> 00:03:02,182 but nothing can be changed until it is faced." 22 00:03:08,021 --> 00:03:11,650 What we're gonna do today is look at a series of film clips 23 00:03:11,733 --> 00:03:15,028 from a list movies, 24 00:03:15,112 --> 00:03:17,739 the ones that win cannes and the academy awards, 25 00:03:17,823 --> 00:03:22,411 as well as cult classics, and other notable works. 26 00:03:22,494 --> 00:03:27,332 And what we're looking at is how shot design is gendered. 27 00:03:27,416 --> 00:03:31,795 That means that male lead actors and female actresses 28 00:03:31,878 --> 00:03:34,214 are filmed very differently, 29 00:03:34,297 --> 00:03:39,594 consistently differently and consistently in a certain way 30 00:03:39,678 --> 00:03:43,181 that can be labeled and tracked and named. 31 00:03:44,933 --> 00:03:49,396 Now, I personally see a very clear connection 32 00:03:49,479 --> 00:03:53,734 between this visual language of cinema, 33 00:03:53,817 --> 00:03:56,445 employment discrimination against women, 34 00:03:56,528 --> 00:03:59,948 particularly in the film industry, 35 00:04:00,031 --> 00:04:05,036 and an environment of pervasive sexual harassment, abuse, 36 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:06,329 and assault. 37 00:04:11,710 --> 00:04:15,005 I had the chance to meet Laura mulvey last year, 38 00:04:15,088 --> 00:04:17,924 the "original gangster" film theorist 39 00:04:18,008 --> 00:04:21,720 who identified the male gaze for all of us. 40 00:04:25,515 --> 00:04:28,685 I only actually used the male gaze once in the essay, 41 00:04:28,769 --> 00:04:32,230 I think, but it's become its dominant memory. 42 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:52,334 The essay really came out of my love of cinema. 43 00:05:02,886 --> 00:05:08,683 Well, having left university in 1963, 44 00:05:08,767 --> 00:05:12,354 I really spent a lot of my time just going to the movies. 45 00:05:12,437 --> 00:05:17,484 Only retrospectively realizing that part of my pleasure 46 00:05:17,567 --> 00:05:21,613 in this film going was that I was watching these movies 47 00:05:21,696 --> 00:05:23,782 as a male spectator. 48 00:05:44,511 --> 00:05:46,888 Almost all of us are familiar with the phrase 49 00:05:46,972 --> 00:05:49,015 the objectification of women, 50 00:05:49,099 --> 00:05:51,810 but it's worth taking a moment to break that down. 51 00:05:51,893 --> 00:05:56,731 What exactly is an object and what is a subject? 52 00:05:56,815 --> 00:05:58,900 So let's get back to basic grammar 53 00:05:58,984 --> 00:06:01,945 in like an English sentence for a second. 54 00:06:02,028 --> 00:06:03,405 The cat eats the mouse. 55 00:06:03,488 --> 00:06:05,740 The cat is the subject, 56 00:06:05,824 --> 00:06:07,868 he's eating the mouse, 57 00:06:07,951 --> 00:06:10,620 the object is acted upon. 58 00:06:10,704 --> 00:06:13,665 Similarly, the man sees the woman, 59 00:06:13,748 --> 00:06:16,001 the man is active doing the locking 60 00:06:16,084 --> 00:06:19,588 and the woman is looked at. 61 00:06:20,422 --> 00:06:21,715 Here she comes. 62 00:06:29,723 --> 00:06:31,266 We'd like a statement from you... 63 00:06:31,349 --> 00:06:35,353 This phrase, to-be-looked-at-ness, 64 00:06:35,437 --> 00:06:39,149 was made famous by Laura mulvey back in 1975 65 00:06:39,232 --> 00:06:43,153 and used to describe the basic essential position 66 00:06:43,236 --> 00:06:45,739 of women in cinema. 67 00:06:45,822 --> 00:06:47,824 That dress will be ahead of fashion a hundred years 68 00:06:47,908 --> 00:06:48,909 from today. 69 00:06:50,243 --> 00:06:51,953 You ain't seen nothing yet. 70 00:06:52,037 --> 00:06:54,331 The accessories are even cuter. 71 00:06:57,208 --> 00:07:00,712 J” I can hear the river call j“ 72 00:07:00,795 --> 00:07:04,049 j” no return, no return j“ 73 00:07:07,844 --> 00:07:10,305 Through time, the woman's body 74 00:07:10,388 --> 00:07:13,141 becomes more and more sexuahzed, 75 00:07:13,224 --> 00:07:17,187 but the basic structure of looking remains the same. 76 00:07:26,821 --> 00:07:28,698 Even though mulvey's foundational work 77 00:07:28,782 --> 00:07:30,283 was written in the '705, 78 00:07:30,367 --> 00:07:33,870 we still totally normalize the male gaze in cinema. 79 00:07:33,954 --> 00:07:35,514 You know, I think the majority of people 80 00:07:35,580 --> 00:07:37,958 don't ever really question that form of looking. 81 00:07:38,041 --> 00:07:40,627 It's so normal it's like the idea of a fish asking 82 00:07:40,710 --> 00:07:42,128 if it's wet. 83 00:07:42,212 --> 00:07:43,838 It's the stuff that I think you thought, 84 00:07:43,922 --> 00:07:45,232 and maybe I thought, well, everybody knows this, 85 00:07:45,256 --> 00:07:48,176 it's in the ether, but it's the ether. 86 00:07:48,259 --> 00:07:51,805 And so to name it and to show it is, you know, 87 00:07:51,888 --> 00:07:53,974 something that I believe can change the world. 88 00:07:58,478 --> 00:08:01,523 The poet philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson 89 00:08:01,606 --> 00:08:04,985 once made a beautiful remark that I feel speaks very well 90 00:08:05,068 --> 00:08:06,653 to the situation. 91 00:08:06,736 --> 00:08:11,992 He said, "perception is not whimsical, but fatal.“ 92 00:08:12,075 --> 00:08:14,327 you know, this is something that people like to say, 93 00:08:14,411 --> 00:08:17,831 like they think creative work and films are whimsical. 94 00:08:17,914 --> 00:08:20,709 It's just my vision. It's just my idea. It's whimsical, 95 00:08:20,792 --> 00:08:23,253 but no, it's really serious. 96 00:08:23,336 --> 00:08:28,925 It's fatal, and it impacts us on the deepest possible level. 97 00:08:29,009 --> 00:08:31,594 As filmmakers we have to be courageous 98 00:08:31,678 --> 00:08:34,347 and be willing to be that force. 99 00:08:34,431 --> 00:08:37,142 Willing to speak our minds, 100 00:08:37,225 --> 00:08:39,394 willing to say, "hey, wait a minute, 101 00:08:39,477 --> 00:08:41,062 what's wrong with this picture? 102 00:08:41,146 --> 00:08:42,272 What are you telling me? 103 00:08:42,355 --> 00:08:44,399 What's the visual rhetoric that we're looking at? 104 00:08:44,482 --> 00:08:47,110 It doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel correct. 105 00:08:47,193 --> 00:08:50,363 Let's rethink this." 106 00:08:50,447 --> 00:08:53,033 I think sometimes with films that are considered 107 00:08:53,116 --> 00:08:54,993 part of the canon, part of, you know, 108 00:08:55,076 --> 00:08:57,537 what are the best quote unquote films, 109 00:08:57,620 --> 00:09:03,835 there is a reticence to even question how they were made 110 00:09:03,918 --> 00:09:06,087 and the stories that they tell. 111 00:09:06,171 --> 00:09:12,135 And I think that it's okay to still love and to see a film 112 00:09:12,218 --> 00:09:13,595 and say it's great, 113 00:09:13,678 --> 00:09:15,221 but that it has some issues. 114 00:09:15,305 --> 00:09:16,765 And I think without questioning it, 115 00:09:16,848 --> 00:09:19,184 we're doing a disservice to our own humanity. 116 00:09:21,311 --> 00:09:24,022 Now most of you guys are probably aware 117 00:09:24,105 --> 00:09:27,776 of the idea that there's a sexist element to script, 118 00:09:27,859 --> 00:09:29,652 dialogue, and character. 119 00:09:29,736 --> 00:09:32,363 You know, we know that we'd prefer not to see women 120 00:09:32,447 --> 00:09:35,116 always playing a maid or a sexy babe, 121 00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:38,286 as opposed to being a ceo or something like that. 122 00:09:40,246 --> 00:09:43,041 That's something that we're well acquainted with. 123 00:09:43,124 --> 00:09:47,837 What's less well known is how shot design itself 124 00:09:47,921 --> 00:09:52,884 is perpetuating these different positions of power. 125 00:09:52,967 --> 00:09:54,928 So when we talk about shot design, 126 00:09:55,011 --> 00:09:57,847 what exactly does that mean? 127 00:09:57,931 --> 00:10:00,475 We're talking about subject, object, 128 00:10:00,558 --> 00:10:02,018 the visual relationship, 129 00:10:02,102 --> 00:10:06,731 framing, camera movement, and lighting, 130 00:10:06,815 --> 00:10:09,109 and how all of these techniques 131 00:10:09,192 --> 00:10:13,404 contribute to the narrative position of the characters. 132 00:10:15,031 --> 00:10:19,953 So the first thing is subject, object. 133 00:10:20,036 --> 00:10:21,746 When we see a shape like this, 134 00:10:21,830 --> 00:10:24,999 we know it means that this guy here is looking 135 00:10:25,083 --> 00:10:27,418 at this person over here, 136 00:10:27,502 --> 00:10:29,754 who happens to be a woman. 137 00:10:31,548 --> 00:10:34,551 - Haven't I seen you somewhere before? 138 00:10:34,634 --> 00:10:39,139 This pov shot can be done in one shot, like this. 139 00:10:39,222 --> 00:10:42,267 It's dropping down. We need to get that adjusted. 140 00:10:42,350 --> 00:10:43,685 It's ridiculous. 141 00:10:45,895 --> 00:10:50,400 I should just drop my brushes, and just, fuck it. Oh! 142 00:10:50,483 --> 00:10:52,735 It's amazing what do you think about that, man? 143 00:10:52,819 --> 00:10:56,364 Pretty amazing. Jerry! Jerry! 144 00:10:58,908 --> 00:11:01,578 Or in two separate shots. 145 00:11:18,011 --> 00:11:19,220 - Hey! 146 00:11:22,265 --> 00:11:27,437 I think a lot about how to create points of view. 147 00:11:27,520 --> 00:11:30,607 It's not just optical, it's perceptual, 148 00:11:30,690 --> 00:11:34,152 you know, we are experiencing the... 149 00:11:34,235 --> 00:11:37,238 You're putting the audience in the character's shoes 150 00:11:37,322 --> 00:11:39,657 so that they aren't just seeing directly 151 00:11:39,741 --> 00:11:41,326 what the character sees, 152 00:11:41,409 --> 00:11:44,954 but they are aligned with them emotionally 153 00:11:45,038 --> 00:11:47,332 and in their thought process. 154 00:11:49,542 --> 00:11:52,170 What's interesting about Robert Montgomery's, 155 00:11:52,253 --> 00:11:56,257 "lady in the lake" is that it's an extreme example 156 00:11:56,341 --> 00:11:58,843 of what subjectivity is. 157 00:11:58,927 --> 00:12:01,221 So it becomes this point of view shot 158 00:12:01,304 --> 00:12:04,015 throughout the whole film. 159 00:12:04,098 --> 00:12:09,270 It aligns with my ideas about a male point of view 160 00:12:09,354 --> 00:12:12,106 and what is the male gaze. 161 00:12:12,190 --> 00:12:14,943 And about sort of the image of a certain kind 162 00:12:15,026 --> 00:12:19,697 of Hollywood beauty or Hollywood victim. 163 00:12:29,374 --> 00:12:30,750 Framing of shots. 164 00:12:33,253 --> 00:12:37,257 Women actors are often shot with fragmented body parts. 165 00:13:01,072 --> 00:13:04,284 And that fragmented body can be part of, of course, 166 00:13:04,367 --> 00:13:05,576 a pov situation. 167 00:13:05,660 --> 00:13:08,538 So you have one shot somebody is looking, 168 00:13:08,621 --> 00:13:10,999 second shot, fragmented body. 169 00:13:11,082 --> 00:13:12,333 - What is that noise? 170 00:13:12,417 --> 00:13:13,793 What noise? 171 00:13:13,876 --> 00:13:15,545 Really, sir, there wasn't any noise. 172 00:13:16,921 --> 00:13:18,589 Or it can be in one shot. 173 00:13:18,673 --> 00:13:21,467 And again, repeating the pov structures. 174 00:13:38,776 --> 00:13:42,905 Another thing that's very common is a female body 175 00:13:42,989 --> 00:13:45,408 on direct display for the audience 176 00:13:45,491 --> 00:13:48,661 without a specific person looking. 177 00:13:48,745 --> 00:13:52,623 This is just like general audience display. 178 00:14:17,815 --> 00:14:19,025 I think we have to consider 179 00:14:19,108 --> 00:14:22,153 that it is through the formal visual language 180 00:14:22,236 --> 00:14:25,990 that we are effectively communicating meaning. 181 00:14:26,074 --> 00:14:29,911 And we inherit so much subliminally 182 00:14:29,994 --> 00:14:33,164 that comes from this language 183 00:14:33,247 --> 00:14:37,794 and it has to do with how shots are composed and framed, 184 00:14:37,877 --> 00:14:42,757 how they're assembled and ordered in a sequence of shots. 185 00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:46,177 All of that becomes the grammar and syntax 186 00:14:46,260 --> 00:14:50,598 by which meaning is conveyed to a viewer. 187 00:14:50,681 --> 00:14:53,518 So in a visual culture, such as ours, 188 00:14:53,601 --> 00:14:55,937 in which there's a ravenous appetite 189 00:14:56,020 --> 00:14:59,023 towards the female as object, 190 00:14:59,107 --> 00:15:01,484 if the camera is predatory 191 00:15:01,567 --> 00:15:04,946 then the culture is predatory as well. 192 00:15:14,163 --> 00:15:16,124 Camera movement. 193 00:15:16,207 --> 00:15:19,335 A common thing that we've all seen a million times 194 00:15:19,419 --> 00:15:22,880 is a pan of a female body. 195 00:15:22,964 --> 00:15:26,384 And that can, of course, be a horizontal pan 196 00:15:26,467 --> 00:15:28,678 or a vertical pan. 197 00:15:34,267 --> 00:15:37,812 Furthermore, what you very often see is slow-mo, 198 00:15:37,895 --> 00:15:40,440 as a way to emphasize. 199 00:15:43,443 --> 00:15:45,862 And with men, when do we get slow-mo? 200 00:15:48,406 --> 00:15:50,950 Action, military, right? 201 00:15:51,033 --> 00:15:52,034 - Heel kick to diaphragm. 202 00:15:56,080 --> 00:16:00,460 80 men get slow-mo for action, 203 00:16:00,543 --> 00:16:03,379 and women get slow-mo for sexualization. 204 00:16:06,257 --> 00:16:09,135 The dissemination of these kinds of shots 205 00:16:09,218 --> 00:16:14,265 is actually a sort of global hypnosis 206 00:16:14,348 --> 00:16:19,395 around how masculine power brings satisfaction. 207 00:16:19,479 --> 00:16:21,105 Whether it's objectifying women 208 00:16:21,189 --> 00:16:23,483 or killing or pretending to kill. 209 00:16:25,526 --> 00:16:27,945 This is propaganda for patriarchy. 210 00:16:33,075 --> 00:16:38,372 Lighting. Lighting is a bit more subtle. 211 00:16:38,456 --> 00:16:43,628 Normally a male lead actor gets to have 3D lighting 212 00:16:43,711 --> 00:16:45,463 with shadow and depth, 213 00:16:45,546 --> 00:16:47,507 and he's located somewhere real 214 00:16:47,590 --> 00:16:50,510 in a space that we understand, 215 00:16:50,593 --> 00:16:52,345 whereas Rita Hayworth here, 216 00:16:52,428 --> 00:16:54,055 this is two frames 217 00:16:54,138 --> 00:16:56,474 from Orson welles' "lady from Shanghai," 218 00:16:56,557 --> 00:16:59,685 Rita Hayworth is shot in this timeless zone 219 00:16:59,769 --> 00:17:00,937 of female beauty. 220 00:17:01,020 --> 00:17:03,397 Women are not allowed to age 221 00:17:03,481 --> 00:17:06,734 and they're not really allowed to have full-on 222 00:17:06,817 --> 00:17:08,778 lives as subjects. 223 00:17:10,071 --> 00:17:12,281 Myself and other directors, 224 00:17:12,365 --> 00:17:17,578 we have been conditioned to present women, actresses, 225 00:17:17,662 --> 00:17:19,455 in the best light possible. 226 00:17:19,539 --> 00:17:21,958 So we put nice soft lights up 227 00:17:22,041 --> 00:17:24,460 and use a nice long lens and, you know, 228 00:17:24,544 --> 00:17:27,380 set it at a high angle, not looking up at something. 229 00:17:27,463 --> 00:17:30,591 And, you know, all the different ways to film women. 230 00:17:30,675 --> 00:17:33,761 I don't worry if a guy has wrinkles, 231 00:17:33,844 --> 00:17:37,056 because that just makes them look rugged as they get older, 232 00:17:37,139 --> 00:17:39,767 but you don't wanna think about that for women. 233 00:17:41,394 --> 00:17:42,645 Can I kiss you? 234 00:17:53,531 --> 00:17:56,617 You know, I got this great movie recently, 235 00:17:56,701 --> 00:17:58,244 it would've moved the needle, 236 00:17:58,327 --> 00:17:59,704 it was very great for me, 237 00:17:59,787 --> 00:18:01,706 and they decided to go younger. 238 00:18:03,457 --> 00:18:09,088 And, what can you say? 239 00:18:11,507 --> 00:18:15,469 So, that happens a lot, that happens a lot. 240 00:18:15,553 --> 00:18:17,179 I have a lot of sadness, 241 00:18:17,263 --> 00:18:18,503 and just even talking about it, 242 00:18:18,556 --> 00:18:20,182 I have a lot of, oh. 243 00:18:23,477 --> 00:18:24,729 'Cause I love to work. 244 00:18:35,656 --> 00:18:38,451 I think this visual language really contributes 245 00:18:38,534 --> 00:18:41,370 to female self hatred and insecurity in a way 246 00:18:41,454 --> 00:18:43,122 that is not insignificant. 247 00:18:43,205 --> 00:18:46,834 What is normalized as beauty is really seen specifically 248 00:18:46,917 --> 00:18:49,962 and dominantly through a male gaze. 249 00:18:50,046 --> 00:18:51,672 I think that really changes how 250 00:18:51,756 --> 00:18:53,424 we relate in the world in general 251 00:18:53,507 --> 00:18:55,593 and not necessarily in the best way. 252 00:18:55,676 --> 00:18:58,262 Shot design is the meta message, right? 253 00:18:58,346 --> 00:19:00,222 It's the aesthetic that is normalized, 254 00:19:00,306 --> 00:19:02,558 and it's very sneaky kind of in that way. 255 00:19:03,643 --> 00:19:05,311 - Priest, let me in. 256 00:19:07,188 --> 00:19:08,731 Here in "super fly" 257 00:19:08,814 --> 00:19:12,234 the cult classic by Gordon parks Jr., 258 00:19:12,318 --> 00:19:14,362 we can see a number of the techniques 259 00:19:14,445 --> 00:19:16,989 that we've been discussing so far. 260 00:19:18,532 --> 00:19:22,703 We have the man in the subject position. 261 00:19:22,787 --> 00:19:29,043 Although, the two heads are photographed quite the same, 262 00:19:29,126 --> 00:19:35,049 suddenly we get the music, 263 00:19:35,132 --> 00:19:38,302 fuzzy lighting, 264 00:19:38,386 --> 00:19:42,139 slow-mo, 265 00:19:42,223 --> 00:19:44,558 body pan. 266 00:19:50,898 --> 00:19:53,401 One of my students when she saw this clip, 267 00:19:53,484 --> 00:19:58,406 she said, "the minute you see the two heads 268 00:19:58,489 --> 00:20:02,576 in the bathtub, you start waiting for the pan 269 00:20:02,660 --> 00:20:04,578 of the woman's body." 270 00:20:04,662 --> 00:20:06,789 Obviously they're both naked in the tub. 271 00:20:06,872 --> 00:20:09,375 We do not see the male body. 272 00:20:12,128 --> 00:20:14,588 Watching this "superfly" bathtub scene, 273 00:20:14,672 --> 00:20:19,260 yeah, I mean, that's an actor's worst fear. 274 00:20:19,343 --> 00:20:22,888 That, you know, they are given a script 275 00:20:22,972 --> 00:20:27,101 that they've agreed to work on, 276 00:20:27,184 --> 00:20:31,731 and the director totally objectifies her 277 00:20:31,814 --> 00:20:37,570 by the choice of shots, the placement of the camera, 278 00:20:37,653 --> 00:20:39,405 and the editing choices. 279 00:20:45,286 --> 00:20:49,206 All of these techniques that we've just reviewed 280 00:20:49,290 --> 00:20:53,377 contribute to the narrative position of the characters. 281 00:20:53,461 --> 00:20:58,424 And very often in ways that seemed strangely irrelevant 282 00:20:58,507 --> 00:21:00,301 to the story. 283 00:21:07,183 --> 00:21:09,602 - More! - No more. 284 00:21:09,685 --> 00:21:14,315 In an ideal world, we would be able to see a huge amount, 285 00:21:14,398 --> 00:21:17,568 a huge variety of films getting kind of equal amount 286 00:21:17,651 --> 00:21:18,903 of play. 287 00:21:18,986 --> 00:21:21,864 You know, so if you are a heterosexual male, 288 00:21:21,947 --> 00:21:25,075 and you want to photograph some woman's behind, 289 00:21:25,159 --> 00:21:26,827 I am certainly not the sex police. 290 00:21:26,911 --> 00:21:29,121 I am not telling you what to do. 291 00:21:29,205 --> 00:21:31,165 I'm not saying do not do that. 292 00:21:31,248 --> 00:21:36,670 I'm just pointing out the fact that a whole lot 293 00:21:36,754 --> 00:21:40,341 of majorly acclaimed directors through time 294 00:21:40,424 --> 00:21:42,218 have done just that. 295 00:21:42,301 --> 00:21:45,930 And since 96% of the films through time 296 00:21:46,013 --> 00:21:47,515 have done just that, 297 00:21:47,598 --> 00:21:49,850 there isn't a whole lot of wiggle room 298 00:21:49,934 --> 00:21:52,019 for those of us who are sick of seeing these things 299 00:21:52,102 --> 00:21:58,651 and are sick of the result of that kind of attack 300 00:21:59,902 --> 00:22:02,071 on our selfhood. 301 00:22:02,154 --> 00:22:05,324 For women, because you're looking at those films, 302 00:22:05,407 --> 00:22:08,536 for instance, she would like to shape herself 303 00:22:08,619 --> 00:22:11,664 to be that object of the gaze. 304 00:22:11,747 --> 00:22:15,960 But she thinks, some part of me, which is me, 305 00:22:16,043 --> 00:22:18,963 is not matching to that, you know, image. 306 00:22:19,046 --> 00:22:21,507 So I would just, kind of toss it out. 307 00:22:21,590 --> 00:22:24,969 So, in that case, she loses her own self, 308 00:22:25,052 --> 00:22:27,429 she feels empty. 309 00:22:27,513 --> 00:22:30,224 All of her, you know, attention or energy 310 00:22:30,307 --> 00:22:33,227 is spent for the external, you know, 311 00:22:33,310 --> 00:22:36,063 establishment of her image. 312 00:22:36,146 --> 00:22:40,276 But when she sits down, she feels empty. 313 00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:41,944 That's the problem. 314 00:22:53,914 --> 00:22:56,500 So here we have very clearly 315 00:22:56,584 --> 00:22:59,295 the narrative position of the woman 316 00:22:59,378 --> 00:23:03,299 and her to-be-looked-at-ness place delineated, 317 00:23:03,382 --> 00:23:05,843 while we hear on audio, 318 00:23:05,926 --> 00:23:08,178 the names of all the male filmmakers, 319 00:23:08,262 --> 00:23:13,434 and we see the male cinematographer shooting her. 320 00:23:19,189 --> 00:23:23,944 "Our desires," of course, they're not referring to me. 321 00:23:28,490 --> 00:23:30,993 Traditionally the audience has been assumed 322 00:23:31,076 --> 00:23:35,414 to be a cis male heterosexual 323 00:23:35,497 --> 00:23:40,044 lined up with the cis male heterosexual director, 324 00:23:40,127 --> 00:23:43,005 lined up with the director of photography, 325 00:23:43,088 --> 00:23:45,424 who controls all the shots, 326 00:23:45,507 --> 00:23:48,427 lined up with a male subject in the frame. 327 00:23:48,510 --> 00:23:53,098 And they are all looking at the female object. 328 00:23:54,767 --> 00:23:57,686 This is the standard line of identification. 329 00:23:57,770 --> 00:24:01,607 Now, obviously, if you are not a male heterosexual, 330 00:24:01,690 --> 00:24:04,860 you're going to inhabit this process of identification 331 00:24:04,944 --> 00:24:06,403 in somewhat a different way. 332 00:24:06,487 --> 00:24:08,781 And depending on where you're located, 333 00:24:08,864 --> 00:24:13,160 you know, for example, if you are a female heterosexual, 334 00:24:13,243 --> 00:24:17,748 which would be me, how does this play out? 335 00:24:17,831 --> 00:24:19,208 How does this affect us? 336 00:24:20,876 --> 00:24:22,920 When I was a student at the ucla film school, 337 00:24:23,003 --> 00:24:27,216 I was very completely obsessed with my work 338 00:24:27,299 --> 00:24:30,678 and I was surrounded by my films on every level 339 00:24:30,761 --> 00:24:32,137 and I was a complete go-getter. 340 00:24:32,221 --> 00:24:34,056 And if somebody would get in my way 341 00:24:34,139 --> 00:24:37,351 and I needed to get into the mix room or something, 342 00:24:37,434 --> 00:24:40,396 I would just be like, "here's $20 move, go, go. 343 00:24:40,479 --> 00:24:42,231 I need to do my work." 344 00:24:42,314 --> 00:24:43,732 I was a complete subject. 345 00:24:43,816 --> 00:24:46,026 I had no problem with that. 346 00:24:46,110 --> 00:24:48,195 But what happened when I tried to be romantic 347 00:24:48,278 --> 00:24:49,279 or go on a date, 348 00:24:49,363 --> 00:24:51,490 that's when I got into trouble. 349 00:24:51,573 --> 00:24:54,994 I experienced myself as to-be-looked-at-ness. 350 00:24:55,077 --> 00:24:56,397 I experienced myself as an object. 351 00:24:56,453 --> 00:24:57,746 I didn't know how to act. 352 00:24:57,830 --> 00:24:59,248 It was very confusing for me. 353 00:24:59,331 --> 00:25:03,836 And I had a very hard time integrating those things. 354 00:25:03,919 --> 00:25:06,630 So I sort ofjumped from object position 355 00:25:06,714 --> 00:25:08,507 to subject position where I identified 356 00:25:08,590 --> 00:25:12,261 with a male subject as an active mover. 357 00:25:12,344 --> 00:25:17,641 And I had no idea how to be a woman as an active mover 358 00:25:17,725 --> 00:25:20,102 and also be sexy. 359 00:25:20,185 --> 00:25:23,814 And this kind of is just a little tip of the iceberg 360 00:25:23,897 --> 00:25:26,775 about how this stuff affects us personally. 361 00:25:32,740 --> 00:25:36,326 So here's the next scene in “contempt." 362 00:25:41,874 --> 00:25:46,211 I'm aware that this scene is supposedly a comment 363 00:25:46,295 --> 00:25:48,297 on female objectification. 364 00:25:51,717 --> 00:25:54,303 Supposedly the producers forced godard 365 00:25:54,386 --> 00:25:58,390 to show more of brigitte bardot's behind, 366 00:25:58,474 --> 00:26:03,103 but whether he had an intention to be sarcastic or not, 367 00:26:03,187 --> 00:26:07,149 the impact on a gut level of seeing a film like this, 368 00:26:07,232 --> 00:26:09,651 and being told that this is a masterpiece 369 00:26:09,735 --> 00:26:12,446 along with all the other films that we'll be seeing today, 370 00:26:12,529 --> 00:26:14,865 that it's one masterpiece after another, 371 00:26:14,948 --> 00:26:19,661 think about how that affects us deeply, internally as women. 372 00:26:19,745 --> 00:26:21,080 It's pretty intense. 373 00:26:35,260 --> 00:26:37,930 You know, this talk is kind of confrontational 374 00:26:38,013 --> 00:26:39,139 and all this stuff, 375 00:26:39,223 --> 00:26:41,934 but I want people to know, 376 00:26:42,017 --> 00:26:44,144 you know, it's built on my sadness. 377 00:26:45,104 --> 00:26:47,147 I know. It's built on my struggle. 378 00:26:47,231 --> 00:26:49,858 It's built on my sadness. 379 00:26:49,942 --> 00:26:56,949 You know, it's not a beautiful thing 380 00:26:57,032 --> 00:26:58,659 that I'm talking about here. 381 00:26:58,742 --> 00:27:03,330 But Nina, don't you think all women feel that sadness? 382 00:27:10,546 --> 00:27:13,507 All of my own narrative fiction films 383 00:27:13,590 --> 00:27:17,719 have been centrally concerned with expressing 384 00:27:17,803 --> 00:27:21,473 the abject feminine 385 00:27:21,557 --> 00:27:25,853 and the wound that is carried deep inside. 386 00:27:44,288 --> 00:27:48,333 It's really such a sacred place to make cinema. 387 00:27:48,417 --> 00:27:50,669 It is a sacred act. 388 00:27:50,752 --> 00:27:55,632 You are really entering people's imaginations 389 00:27:55,716 --> 00:27:58,302 and their psyches in such a way that 390 00:27:59,469 --> 00:28:02,097 it should be treated with care. 391 00:28:02,181 --> 00:28:06,560 It's a place of magnification, 392 00:28:06,643 --> 00:28:08,729 it's almost like speaking on a microphone. 393 00:28:08,812 --> 00:28:11,523 Whatever you say it's amplified, 394 00:28:11,607 --> 00:28:18,113 so just being aware of that, it's so important. 395 00:28:18,197 --> 00:28:21,366 The researchers green and Brock 396 00:28:21,450 --> 00:28:23,911 coined a term, which is transportation, 397 00:28:23,994 --> 00:28:28,207 transportation is the effect of movies and television 398 00:28:28,290 --> 00:28:31,710 on viewers that moves us from where we are, 399 00:28:31,793 --> 00:28:35,923 when we walk into a theater, into a new world. 400 00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:43,347 It takes us from the familiar along a continuum, 401 00:28:43,430 --> 00:28:44,681 into a new place. 402 00:28:46,850 --> 00:28:50,812 And we go into a state of suspension of disbelief, 403 00:28:50,896 --> 00:28:55,901 and in that state, we have the highest knowledge gains, 404 00:28:55,984 --> 00:28:58,111 the biggest shifts in attitude, 405 00:28:58,195 --> 00:29:00,614 and the greatest changes in behavior 406 00:29:00,697 --> 00:29:03,283 or behavioral intention. 407 00:29:03,367 --> 00:29:07,204 This is the power of storytelling on the screen. 408 00:29:23,762 --> 00:29:25,639 In "lady from Shanghai," 409 00:29:25,722 --> 00:29:28,725 we can see so many of the basic gendered 410 00:29:28,809 --> 00:29:30,560 shot design techniques 411 00:29:30,644 --> 00:29:33,689 that continue to inform filmmaking today. 412 00:29:33,772 --> 00:29:36,900 Lover, this really concerns you more than anyone else. 413 00:29:36,984 --> 00:29:42,906 J” don't take your arms away j” 414 00:29:42,990 --> 00:29:46,076 so here you can see the men in 3D lighting 415 00:29:46,159 --> 00:29:49,121 and 3D space controlling the story, 416 00:29:49,204 --> 00:29:50,706 controlling the narrative. 417 00:29:50,789 --> 00:29:52,708 Did you know about that, lover? 418 00:29:52,791 --> 00:29:54,668 No I didn't. 419 00:29:54,751 --> 00:29:55,752 Shut up, George. 420 00:29:55,836 --> 00:29:58,380 Rita Hayworth, of course, is in a bikini 421 00:29:58,463 --> 00:30:00,882 while everyone else is fully clothed. 422 00:30:10,475 --> 00:30:14,313 And of course, we have the ever present male subject 423 00:30:14,396 --> 00:30:18,066 looking at the female object. 424 00:30:27,909 --> 00:30:32,873 Rita Hayworth is floating in a strange dislocated space. 425 00:30:32,956 --> 00:30:36,960 Maybe we'll call it male fantasy space. 426 00:30:43,550 --> 00:30:47,137 In this clip and in subsequent clips, 427 00:30:47,220 --> 00:30:49,348 the beauty of the woman can be seen 428 00:30:49,431 --> 00:30:51,516 as having a certain power, 429 00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:53,560 you know, the power to attract the gaze. 430 00:30:53,643 --> 00:30:54,829 This is what we're always told, 431 00:30:54,853 --> 00:30:58,815 like the way to be powerful as a woman is to be beautiful. 432 00:30:58,899 --> 00:31:02,694 But to answer that and to respond to that, 433 00:31:02,778 --> 00:31:05,280 I would like to quote Angela Carter, 434 00:31:05,364 --> 00:31:10,452 who says that women have to be seduced into femininity. 435 00:31:10,535 --> 00:31:12,996 And what does she mean by seduced into femininity? 436 00:31:13,080 --> 00:31:16,792 She really means seduced into powerlessness. 437 00:31:16,875 --> 00:31:19,044 And how are we seduced into powerlessness? 438 00:31:23,799 --> 00:31:24,883 By glamor. 439 00:31:26,968 --> 00:31:28,387 That's it, keep it up. 440 00:31:28,470 --> 00:31:29,679 Lovely. 441 00:31:32,682 --> 00:31:33,975 Love, love, head up. Head up. 442 00:31:37,729 --> 00:31:40,565 Yes. Yes. Yes. 443 00:31:57,791 --> 00:32:00,919 So glamor, in my opinion, is a coverup, 444 00:32:01,002 --> 00:32:05,006 is a veil and is a sort of bait 445 00:32:05,090 --> 00:32:09,010 and switch for powerlessness. 446 00:32:09,094 --> 00:32:11,430 A woman's agency is always interrupted 447 00:32:11,513 --> 00:32:15,725 by the way that we frame her as a spectacle 448 00:32:15,809 --> 00:32:17,060 at the same time. 449 00:32:17,144 --> 00:32:20,105 Whatever action she's doing it's super important 450 00:32:20,188 --> 00:32:25,277 to make sure that she has a certain aesthetic 451 00:32:25,360 --> 00:32:30,949 and a certain look that is specifically sexually attractive 452 00:32:31,032 --> 00:32:33,118 for a heterosexual male gaze. 453 00:32:35,412 --> 00:32:36,413 Who's that girl? 454 00:32:36,496 --> 00:32:37,807 Which one? The one I was talking about? 455 00:32:37,831 --> 00:32:39,416 - Yeah. - The blond? Yeah. 456 00:32:39,499 --> 00:32:41,376 You went with her? You didn't try to fuck her? 457 00:32:41,460 --> 00:32:43,503 I try to fuck anything, you know that. 458 00:32:43,587 --> 00:32:44,588 She didn't go with it? 459 00:32:44,671 --> 00:32:45,839 No, she didn't go for it. 460 00:32:45,922 --> 00:32:48,925 Naturally, she knew better. 461 00:32:49,009 --> 00:32:51,094 What do you mean she knew better? 462 00:32:51,178 --> 00:32:52,298 She knew you were an animal. 463 00:32:52,345 --> 00:32:54,222 She knew it was no good if you go with her. 464 00:32:54,306 --> 00:32:55,682 Her reputation will be ruined. 465 00:32:57,100 --> 00:32:59,478 I thought he was talking to you, Vicky. 466 00:32:59,561 --> 00:33:01,855 - That's the same guy? - Yes, it's the same guy. 467 00:33:01,938 --> 00:33:03,624 - I gotta break his neck. - He was over here yesterday. 468 00:33:03,648 --> 00:33:05,358 - He was here yesterday? - You missed him. 469 00:33:05,442 --> 00:33:06,502 I was at the house yesterday 470 00:33:06,526 --> 00:33:07,611 and he was over here. 471 00:33:28,131 --> 00:33:32,219 So as usual, we have the men in 3D space. 472 00:33:32,302 --> 00:33:36,598 We have the men talking to each other about a woman. 473 00:33:36,681 --> 00:33:38,517 We have her legs fragmented. 474 00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:40,310 We have her legs in slow-mo. 475 00:33:40,393 --> 00:33:42,437 Same old, same old. 476 00:33:42,521 --> 00:33:45,565 There is one interesting thing though about this scene 477 00:33:45,649 --> 00:33:48,693 that I want to dissect. 478 00:33:48,777 --> 00:33:52,280 And that is the way that audio is handled. 479 00:33:52,364 --> 00:33:54,658 When you look at the scene, you notice that, 480 00:33:54,741 --> 00:33:56,952 Robert De Niro is looking at Vicky 481 00:33:57,035 --> 00:33:59,204 and she's far away from him. 482 00:33:59,287 --> 00:34:01,623 So you think that it makes sense 483 00:34:01,706 --> 00:34:06,628 that we hear Robert De Niro and his friend talk, 484 00:34:06,711 --> 00:34:11,383 but you don't hear Vicky talk because she's far away, 485 00:34:11,466 --> 00:34:13,343 but maybe not, okay? 486 00:34:13,426 --> 00:34:15,804 We actually did some research on exactly 487 00:34:15,887 --> 00:34:19,015 how the scene was shot and laid out the dimensions. 488 00:34:21,434 --> 00:34:24,271 Here's Robert De Niro, he's with his friend 489 00:34:24,354 --> 00:34:28,441 on one side of the pool, 490 00:34:28,525 --> 00:34:31,194 and here's Vicky way far away. 491 00:34:31,278 --> 00:34:34,739 That's why we can't hear her talking, right? 492 00:34:36,700 --> 00:34:41,079 But maybe not, because how come the other two guys 493 00:34:41,162 --> 00:34:44,416 who are sitting exactly right near Vicky, 494 00:34:44,499 --> 00:34:47,419 we can hear them perfectly well. 495 00:34:47,502 --> 00:34:51,298 And they are equidistant from Robert De Niro. 496 00:34:53,550 --> 00:34:56,678 So basically what we have here is something 497 00:34:56,761 --> 00:34:58,513 that when we watch the movie, 498 00:34:58,597 --> 00:35:01,182 we would have absolutely no awareness of this. 499 00:35:01,266 --> 00:35:06,938 It infiltrates our consciousness in a subconscious way. 500 00:35:07,022 --> 00:35:11,192 And maybe that's why when a young woman shows up 501 00:35:11,276 --> 00:35:15,405 to pitch a film to a male executive, 502 00:35:15,488 --> 00:35:17,824 he just sees her mouth moving, 503 00:35:17,907 --> 00:35:20,744 but he doesn't hear a single word that she says. 504 00:35:30,962 --> 00:35:32,672 Absolutely objectification of women 505 00:35:32,756 --> 00:35:34,633 impacts hiring practices. 506 00:35:34,716 --> 00:35:36,760 I think for all of us who were exposed 507 00:35:36,843 --> 00:35:39,095 to sexually objectifying media, 508 00:35:39,179 --> 00:35:42,307 we all be embed it a bit in our perception 509 00:35:42,390 --> 00:35:43,767 of how women should be. 510 00:35:43,850 --> 00:35:47,020 It becomes this way of dealing with women 511 00:35:47,103 --> 00:35:51,524 that is primarily around their sexual value, 512 00:35:51,608 --> 00:35:53,610 that if they're attractive to you. 513 00:35:53,693 --> 00:35:55,320 And so absolutely has everything 514 00:35:55,403 --> 00:35:57,405 to do with certainly how you're treated on the job. 515 00:35:57,489 --> 00:36:00,617 The challenge is that employment discrimination in general 516 00:36:00,700 --> 00:36:03,578 in the entertainment industry is not enforced. 517 00:36:05,747 --> 00:36:08,625 Coming out of film school, we have 50/50 gender parity 518 00:36:08,708 --> 00:36:12,253 and we've had that for a while in the top us film schools, 519 00:36:12,337 --> 00:36:15,382 and yet the top 250 films directed by women 520 00:36:15,465 --> 00:36:18,301 back in 1998 was 9%. 521 00:36:18,385 --> 00:36:22,097 And moving up to 2018, we're down to 8%. 522 00:36:22,180 --> 00:36:23,807 People are really happy for women 523 00:36:23,890 --> 00:36:27,102 to be attending film schools 50/50 at parity with men, 524 00:36:27,185 --> 00:36:29,896 as long as they're paying money into the system. 525 00:36:29,979 --> 00:36:33,566 But when we move into the professional playing field, 526 00:36:33,650 --> 00:36:37,654 and we're asking the industry to pay money out to women, 527 00:36:37,737 --> 00:36:39,906 well, that's where the doors get closed. 528 00:36:39,989 --> 00:36:42,158 At the very heart of the issue 529 00:36:42,242 --> 00:36:45,078 and the work that I've been doing is title vii, 530 00:36:45,161 --> 00:36:47,288 which is equal employment opportunity law. 531 00:36:50,875 --> 00:36:55,088 Hollywood has been the worst violator of title vii 532 00:36:55,171 --> 00:36:58,133 of any industry in the United States of America. 533 00:36:58,216 --> 00:37:00,218 Even worse than coal mining. 534 00:37:02,595 --> 00:37:05,223 It wasn't always this way, 535 00:37:05,306 --> 00:37:08,393 in fact, the very first narrative film, 536 00:37:08,476 --> 00:37:11,229 the very first use of film to tell a story 537 00:37:11,312 --> 00:37:14,274 versus just documenting an existing event, 538 00:37:14,357 --> 00:37:18,653 features a woman subject, a woman protagonist 539 00:37:18,737 --> 00:37:23,491 and was created by a woman producer, writer, director, 540 00:37:23,575 --> 00:37:29,706 Alice guy blaché, in 1896. 541 00:37:29,789 --> 00:37:32,751 During early Hollywood, during the silent era, 542 00:37:32,834 --> 00:37:35,378 there was a significant amount of women 543 00:37:35,462 --> 00:37:37,964 working in the new industry 544 00:37:38,047 --> 00:37:41,968 that had a significant amount of power, of artistic agency. 545 00:37:42,051 --> 00:37:47,223 This is a really special moment for women directors. 546 00:37:51,478 --> 00:37:54,939 “The red kimono" by Dorothy Davenport 547 00:37:55,023 --> 00:37:57,942 expresses the inner subjective experience 548 00:37:58,026 --> 00:37:59,736 of the main character, 549 00:37:59,819 --> 00:38:02,530 who was forced into prostitution. 550 00:38:10,872 --> 00:38:14,501 Once the transition to sound takes place, 551 00:38:14,584 --> 00:38:16,795 wall street is brought in because the transition 552 00:38:16,878 --> 00:38:20,340 to sound has significant financial demands 553 00:38:20,423 --> 00:38:24,677 and so the masculinized culture of wall street then begins 554 00:38:24,761 --> 00:38:26,304 to structure Hollywood. 555 00:38:27,514 --> 00:38:29,516 The most pressing need today 556 00:38:29,599 --> 00:38:31,267 is to start the flow of capital 557 00:38:31,351 --> 00:38:33,269 which turns the wheels of industry. 558 00:38:33,353 --> 00:38:37,857 Women are maneuvered out of these positions 559 00:38:37,941 --> 00:38:43,279 of artistic, creative power, and then for 40 years 560 00:38:43,363 --> 00:38:46,115 there were only two women making feature films in Hollywood, 561 00:38:46,199 --> 00:38:48,284 Dorothy arzner and ida lupino. 562 00:39:02,632 --> 00:39:05,218 Go ahead and stare, I'm not ashamed. 563 00:39:05,301 --> 00:39:06,970 Go on, laugh, get your money's worth. 564 00:39:07,053 --> 00:39:09,556 Nobody is going to hurt you. 565 00:39:09,639 --> 00:39:11,200 I know you want me to tear my clothes off 566 00:39:11,224 --> 00:39:13,434 so that you can look your 50 cents worth. 567 00:39:13,518 --> 00:39:15,186 50 cents for the privilege of staring 568 00:39:15,270 --> 00:39:18,147 at a girl the way your wives won't let you. 569 00:39:18,231 --> 00:39:19,991 So that you can go home when the show is over 570 00:39:20,024 --> 00:39:22,026 and strut before your wives and sweethearts 571 00:39:22,110 --> 00:39:24,487 and play at being the stronger sex for a minute? 572 00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:31,870 I'm sure they see through you just like we do. 573 00:39:35,874 --> 00:39:39,502 Dorothy arzner's women defined themselves 574 00:39:39,586 --> 00:39:41,796 and very beautifully so. 575 00:39:41,880 --> 00:39:45,133 Sadly, she was a rare exception 576 00:39:45,216 --> 00:39:48,761 and a male perspective continued to control cinema 577 00:39:48,845 --> 00:39:51,347 for decades. 578 00:39:51,431 --> 00:39:55,143 I think the history of Hollywood often times, you know, 579 00:39:55,226 --> 00:39:59,355 has made it so that the word director is synonymous 580 00:39:59,439 --> 00:40:02,358 with a male director. 581 00:40:02,442 --> 00:40:05,153 You know, that's what it has been for many years 582 00:40:05,236 --> 00:40:07,614 and still is, I think, to this day. 583 00:40:07,697 --> 00:40:11,075 I, you know, I never thought, 584 00:40:11,159 --> 00:40:15,246 oh, I'm going to go to school and be a film director. 585 00:40:15,330 --> 00:40:17,081 You didn't say that back then. 586 00:40:17,165 --> 00:40:21,210 Maybe I could be an editor or a script supervisor 587 00:40:21,294 --> 00:40:25,757 or some other job that girls could do on a movie. 588 00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:28,509 Never occurred to me when I was in school, 589 00:40:28,593 --> 00:40:30,637 went all the way through and got a master's degree, 590 00:40:30,720 --> 00:40:33,389 never occurred to me that I could be a director. 591 00:40:34,724 --> 00:40:36,851 No, actually I wanted to talk to you 592 00:40:36,935 --> 00:40:39,228 about dawn's project, "real life" 593 00:40:39,312 --> 00:40:41,189 it could be exactly what Cyrus is looking for 594 00:40:41,272 --> 00:40:43,566 and I was thinking we get somebody really big to direct, 595 00:40:43,650 --> 00:40:46,069 maybe penny Marshall? 596 00:40:46,152 --> 00:40:48,571 What? Shut up, listen, and learn. 597 00:40:48,655 --> 00:40:51,741 Avoid women directors, they ovulate. 598 00:40:53,451 --> 00:40:58,039 By the time I started prepping to make "daughters of the dust" 599 00:40:58,122 --> 00:41:01,918 I was very much aware I was, you know, a graduate of afi, 600 00:41:02,001 --> 00:41:04,087 a graduate of ucla, 601 00:41:04,170 --> 00:41:11,177 and I was very much aware of point of view camera placement. 602 00:41:11,803 --> 00:41:17,892 So I very much placed my camera within the circle, 603 00:41:17,976 --> 00:41:19,644 within the culture of women. 604 00:41:19,727 --> 00:41:21,813 I wanted to depict something 605 00:41:21,896 --> 00:41:25,149 that had never been seen before. 606 00:41:25,233 --> 00:41:32,240 Once I saw a pink satin case for jewelry for each woman 607 00:41:32,323 --> 00:41:34,659 in a shop window. 608 00:41:34,742 --> 00:41:38,705 I couldn't afford that case for myself. 609 00:41:38,788 --> 00:41:41,165 And I didn't ask nobody to buy it for me, you know. 610 00:41:44,585 --> 00:41:48,256 But in my mind I put all those bad memories 611 00:41:48,339 --> 00:41:50,591 in that case and I locked them there. 612 00:41:53,594 --> 00:41:57,306 I don't let nothing in that case 613 00:41:57,390 --> 00:42:00,935 or nobody outside the case tell me who I am 614 00:42:01,019 --> 00:42:02,395 and how I should feel about me. 615 00:42:06,315 --> 00:42:10,403 Yeah, in 1991, when we did, when we were at Sundance 616 00:42:10,486 --> 00:42:12,030 and I had "daughters of the dust" 617 00:42:12,113 --> 00:42:15,575 and you had "queen of diamonds," 618 00:42:15,658 --> 00:42:18,828 we were kind of like pushed to the background, 619 00:42:18,911 --> 00:42:23,833 it was like "nice job, girls. See you later." 620 00:42:23,916 --> 00:42:25,716 And all of the other filmmakers who were there 621 00:42:25,793 --> 00:42:28,921 who were male did go on to make, you know, 622 00:42:29,005 --> 00:42:32,508 many, many films after that. 623 00:42:32,592 --> 00:42:36,804 I would've sworn that by the turn of the century 624 00:42:36,888 --> 00:42:39,807 that there will be 50% of people making films 625 00:42:39,891 --> 00:42:41,559 would've been women. 626 00:42:41,642 --> 00:42:45,480 And due to that, the whole way of thinking 627 00:42:45,563 --> 00:42:47,523 about the image and about gender 628 00:42:47,607 --> 00:42:50,026 would've been completely transformed. 629 00:42:50,109 --> 00:42:52,862 And it just seems extraordinary thinking back, 630 00:42:52,945 --> 00:42:56,449 how little progress has actually been made. 631 00:42:56,532 --> 00:43:00,244 You know, when I went to Sundance with my first feature, 632 00:43:00,328 --> 00:43:06,000 I couldn't get an agent and I couldn't get a distributor. 633 00:43:06,084 --> 00:43:09,212 You know, and I would have male agents write me 634 00:43:09,295 --> 00:43:13,841 to see the film and then they would say, "it's not for me 635 00:43:13,925 --> 00:43:15,968 or it's not what I'm looking for." 636 00:43:16,052 --> 00:43:17,887 And then you would look at their rosters, 637 00:43:17,970 --> 00:43:19,931 like this was just 2013, 638 00:43:20,014 --> 00:43:21,849 you know, I would look at their rosters 639 00:43:21,933 --> 00:43:24,769 and their rosters were all male. 640 00:43:24,852 --> 00:43:28,481 Then it's like "okay, well, I know what you're looking for." 641 00:43:28,564 --> 00:43:31,943 You know, what kind of coded language is that? 642 00:43:33,569 --> 00:43:34,849 There's still only 3 women 643 00:43:34,904 --> 00:43:38,991 in competition out of 21 films. 644 00:43:39,075 --> 00:43:42,161 And that's because the director of the film festival said, 645 00:43:42,245 --> 00:43:44,664 "we just look for the best films. 646 00:43:44,747 --> 00:43:46,249 It has nothing to do with gender, 647 00:43:46,332 --> 00:43:49,210 we just look for the best films." 648 00:43:49,293 --> 00:43:50,920 With all due respect, 649 00:43:51,003 --> 00:43:55,508 this comment does not reflect very much understanding 650 00:43:55,591 --> 00:43:57,635 of the concept of diversity 651 00:43:57,718 --> 00:44:02,098 and the way that the idea of good film is created 652 00:44:02,181 --> 00:44:05,685 through identification with what is being shown, 653 00:44:05,768 --> 00:44:06,811 that's how we... 654 00:44:06,894 --> 00:44:09,438 I love this film, I relate to this film 655 00:44:09,522 --> 00:44:11,941 because, because it talks to me, right? 656 00:44:12,024 --> 00:44:13,860 That's how we define what a good film is. 657 00:44:15,695 --> 00:44:16,821 Burn 'em! 658 00:44:16,904 --> 00:44:17,905 Put down the cellphone. 659 00:44:19,282 --> 00:44:21,492 Get out of the way. 660 00:44:21,576 --> 00:44:22,577 I can't get a shot! 661 00:44:37,717 --> 00:44:40,052 So Kathryn Bigelow's film "hurt locker," 662 00:44:40,136 --> 00:44:42,471 which was the first film where a female ever won 663 00:44:42,555 --> 00:44:46,475 best director, was a film about men, featuring men, 664 00:44:46,559 --> 00:44:50,730 watching men in action blowing things up in slow motion. 665 00:44:53,191 --> 00:44:56,736 It's also quite interesting that every single department head 666 00:44:56,819 --> 00:44:59,322 in this movie was male. 667 00:45:11,334 --> 00:45:15,004 Gender is a huge factor when you look around the sets. 668 00:45:15,087 --> 00:45:16,672 Things haven't changed that much, 669 00:45:16,756 --> 00:45:21,010 I feel like it is mostly white men 670 00:45:21,093 --> 00:45:24,347 and even in my own productions where I've funded myself, 671 00:45:24,430 --> 00:45:28,059 I'd hire a white man and he hires all white men 672 00:45:28,142 --> 00:45:30,686 and I was like, "oh, did I have to communicate with you, 673 00:45:30,770 --> 00:45:32,688 like, to make it inclusive?" 674 00:45:32,772 --> 00:45:34,649 There's no question that, 675 00:45:34,732 --> 00:45:41,030 because so many men are directors of photography, 95%, 676 00:45:41,113 --> 00:45:45,284 the male gaze is definitely normalized in our society. 677 00:45:45,368 --> 00:45:51,499 Even when a woman is the protagonist of a film, 678 00:45:51,582 --> 00:45:56,170 she is still often objectified and exploited. 679 00:45:59,548 --> 00:46:02,134 Here's the opening scene when we are introduced 680 00:46:02,218 --> 00:46:05,263 to Carrie, who's the protagonist of this film. 681 00:46:07,723 --> 00:46:09,850 We're learning about her as a person, 682 00:46:09,934 --> 00:46:12,478 she's klutzy at sports, 683 00:46:12,561 --> 00:46:14,981 you can't win a game with her on the team. 684 00:46:15,064 --> 00:46:16,274 She's bullied a bit. 685 00:46:17,858 --> 00:46:20,069 You eat shit. 686 00:46:20,152 --> 00:46:23,531 Then suddenly, we cut to the interior 687 00:46:23,614 --> 00:46:25,866 of the girls' locker room. 688 00:46:28,494 --> 00:46:34,667 Slow-mo, fuzzy lighting, 689 00:46:34,750 --> 00:46:35,793 naked women. 690 00:46:41,173 --> 00:46:44,969 All while we have the names of the male filmmakers 691 00:46:45,052 --> 00:46:47,888 superimposed over the scene. 692 00:46:50,933 --> 00:46:53,394 You have to wonder, I mean, the last time 693 00:46:53,477 --> 00:46:58,399 I was in a woman's locker room I wasn't prancing around. 694 00:47:03,070 --> 00:47:06,449 - When you see what's happening is completely predatory. 695 00:47:06,532 --> 00:47:09,660 It takes the development of that, as bell hooks says, 696 00:47:09,744 --> 00:47:12,663 oppositional gaze to really kind of like, 697 00:47:12,747 --> 00:47:15,583 not just take things at face value 698 00:47:15,666 --> 00:47:20,129 and to investigate a little further and ask, like, 699 00:47:20,212 --> 00:47:22,340 what is this communicating? 700 00:47:27,928 --> 00:47:31,390 So here we get the girl who was being bullied, 701 00:47:31,474 --> 00:47:33,642 who was the subject of the story 702 00:47:33,726 --> 00:47:37,271 in a completely non-sequitur scene. 703 00:47:39,774 --> 00:47:40,858 This one student told me, 704 00:47:40,941 --> 00:47:42,151 "when I'm in the shower, 705 00:47:42,234 --> 00:47:44,445 I'm imagining how I look. 706 00:47:44,528 --> 00:47:46,322 When I'm alone in the shower." 707 00:47:46,405 --> 00:47:49,825 You can't even have an experience of your own body 708 00:47:49,909 --> 00:47:51,744 without seeing your own body 709 00:47:51,827 --> 00:47:57,124 from this like weird perspective of, you know, that. 710 00:47:57,208 --> 00:48:00,795 So many of the examples, I wanted to watch and just enjoy, 711 00:48:00,878 --> 00:48:02,713 the way that they are supposed to be, 712 00:48:02,797 --> 00:48:04,673 the way that they are supposed to be fun, 713 00:48:04,757 --> 00:48:08,010 the way that they are supposed to be tantalizing or sexy. 714 00:48:08,094 --> 00:48:12,181 My first reaction was to just ingest it that way, 715 00:48:12,264 --> 00:48:14,392 because that was the easiest thing 716 00:48:14,475 --> 00:48:17,728 and I had to consciously decide to lift the veil 717 00:48:17,812 --> 00:48:21,899 of my perception and it brought up anger 718 00:48:21,982 --> 00:48:25,111 and it brought up the way my own mother taught me 719 00:48:25,194 --> 00:48:27,029 to think about my body and the way she thought 720 00:48:27,113 --> 00:48:29,365 about her body. 721 00:48:29,448 --> 00:48:32,785 And I'm thinking about the way I'm being taught 722 00:48:32,868 --> 00:48:37,123 to think about my body on a minute by minute basis. 723 00:48:40,751 --> 00:48:41,812 We've secured the perimeter 724 00:48:41,836 --> 00:48:44,036 but I don't think we should hold it for too much longer. 725 00:48:47,633 --> 00:48:49,111 Well, in watching the avengers movies, 726 00:48:49,135 --> 00:48:52,012 even when I'm watching Scarlet Johansson play "black widow" 727 00:48:52,096 --> 00:48:54,014 and she's taking a very active role, right? 728 00:48:54,098 --> 00:48:56,976 It still makes me feel like women, 729 00:48:57,059 --> 00:48:59,562 even at their most empowered in culture right now 730 00:48:59,645 --> 00:49:03,023 are still subject to this predatory way of looking. 731 00:49:13,451 --> 00:49:15,995 We're seeing this woman maybe as a boss, 732 00:49:16,078 --> 00:49:18,330 but we are seeing, you know, 733 00:49:18,414 --> 00:49:21,709 yes, details of her chest or, you know, boobs, or butt, 734 00:49:21,792 --> 00:49:22,835 or whatever. 735 00:49:22,918 --> 00:49:26,505 So it is working on your brain in a subliminal way, 736 00:49:26,589 --> 00:49:28,424 like, in a subtext. 737 00:49:28,507 --> 00:49:30,259 I think it does have an effect 738 00:49:30,342 --> 00:49:32,470 and we all are susceptible to this. 739 00:49:44,773 --> 00:49:46,484 Communists claim to leadership 740 00:49:46,567 --> 00:49:48,235 can't be upheld much longer 741 00:49:48,319 --> 00:49:50,654 and if rapid change is not forthcoming, 742 00:49:50,738 --> 00:49:52,698 today's relatively calm protests 743 00:49:52,781 --> 00:49:55,409 could be seen as the calm before the storm. 744 00:50:00,456 --> 00:50:02,208 I've had a pretty shitty day so far 745 00:50:02,291 --> 00:50:04,335 but it looks like it just got worse. 746 00:50:11,383 --> 00:50:14,345 Even in Patty Jenkins' "wonder woman" 747 00:50:14,428 --> 00:50:17,264 the actress almost looks like she's walking down 748 00:50:17,348 --> 00:50:18,807 a model's runaway. 749 00:50:21,560 --> 00:50:24,396 It's ridiculous when you have these wonder women, 750 00:50:24,480 --> 00:50:26,941 power women, and yet they are shot 751 00:50:27,024 --> 00:50:33,405 and they're stylized, and they're costumed to look like, 752 00:50:33,489 --> 00:50:36,784 you know, another post modern Barbie. 753 00:50:38,202 --> 00:50:41,413 If that's all we're seeing, 754 00:50:41,497 --> 00:50:44,750 it's invisible, it's the air, you don't notice the air. 755 00:50:44,833 --> 00:50:48,504 So that, it's just as likely for a woman to reproduce 756 00:50:48,587 --> 00:50:50,756 those tropes as it is for a man. 757 00:51:23,455 --> 00:51:26,083 Notice bill Murray, we get his face, 758 00:51:26,166 --> 00:51:27,626 we get his feelings. 759 00:51:27,710 --> 00:51:31,088 He's in 3D light. 760 00:51:31,171 --> 00:51:37,469 He's having an experience, a human experience of his own, 761 00:51:37,553 --> 00:51:41,807 whereas the lead actress is introduced 762 00:51:41,890 --> 00:51:47,229 via see-through underwear, fuzzy lighting, 763 00:51:47,313 --> 00:51:49,440 fragmented body. 764 00:51:49,523 --> 00:51:53,986 And one might wonder if this is supposed to be her face. 765 00:51:56,614 --> 00:52:01,285 "Bombshell" is interesting because the content of the film 766 00:52:01,368 --> 00:52:03,078 is ostensibly feminist. 767 00:52:03,162 --> 00:52:06,665 It's about women who were sexually harassed on the job. 768 00:52:06,749 --> 00:52:10,919 Then they went into a lawsuit against Roger ailes 769 00:52:11,003 --> 00:52:12,379 and they actually won. 770 00:52:14,048 --> 00:52:18,677 There's only one scene where we see 771 00:52:18,761 --> 00:52:22,931 sexual harassment happening in front of the camera. 772 00:52:23,015 --> 00:52:24,350 - Let me see your legs. 773 00:52:30,272 --> 00:52:33,817 So let's watch how that scene was constructed. 774 00:52:37,529 --> 00:52:39,531 - It's a visual medium, Kayla. 775 00:52:41,784 --> 00:52:42,910 Come on. 776 00:52:50,209 --> 00:52:51,543 Higher. 777 00:53:07,142 --> 00:53:08,811 Come on, higher. 778 00:53:30,374 --> 00:53:31,959 That's fine, Kayla. 779 00:53:32,042 --> 00:53:36,130 Needless to say this shot is not from Kayla's point 780 00:53:36,213 --> 00:53:41,093 of view, right? 781 00:53:43,303 --> 00:53:46,181 How would you shoot that scene where you really felt 782 00:53:46,265 --> 00:53:50,644 like we're feeling what margot is feeling, 783 00:53:50,728 --> 00:53:55,607 but not being exploitative about it or objectifying her? 784 00:53:55,691 --> 00:53:58,652 Could it have been better if we just implied it 785 00:53:58,736 --> 00:53:59,862 and stayed on her face? 786 00:53:59,945 --> 00:54:01,822 I mean, that would've been another choice 787 00:54:01,905 --> 00:54:05,993 or if we showed her gaze on the guy 788 00:54:06,076 --> 00:54:10,330 and just watch her watching him more, you know. 789 00:54:10,414 --> 00:54:12,124 There could've been other ways to do it. 790 00:54:12,207 --> 00:54:13,792 As audre lord said, 791 00:54:13,876 --> 00:54:15,919 "the master's tools will never dismantle 792 00:54:16,003 --> 00:54:18,005 the master's house." 793 00:54:18,088 --> 00:54:22,885 We could apply that quote to the male gaze way of filming. 794 00:54:22,968 --> 00:54:29,975 When you use those tools to reinforce, reenact, rekindle 795 00:54:32,519 --> 00:54:36,565 objectifying women, then there's a problem. 796 00:54:43,405 --> 00:54:44,782 Here's another film, 797 00:54:44,865 --> 00:54:47,242 in this case directed by a woman 798 00:54:47,326 --> 00:54:51,330 that has been described as feminist. 799 00:54:51,413 --> 00:54:55,083 It features the objectification of very young girls. 800 00:55:00,005 --> 00:55:02,216 And while your topic such as in "cuties" 801 00:55:02,299 --> 00:55:05,969 can be about the objectification of women and girls, 802 00:55:06,053 --> 00:55:07,429 in the case of "cuties," 803 00:55:07,513 --> 00:55:10,307 you can still perpetuate a way of shot design 804 00:55:10,390 --> 00:55:12,810 that really appropriates the male way of looking 805 00:55:12,893 --> 00:55:15,771 and really just regurgitates that male gaze, 806 00:55:15,854 --> 00:55:18,273 even though you're a female director. 807 00:55:25,739 --> 00:55:28,784 It's important to remember that the male gaze 808 00:55:28,867 --> 00:55:32,663 onto young girls is not a new phenomenon. 809 00:55:37,584 --> 00:55:40,921 Pretty baby was nominated for the palm d'or 810 00:55:41,004 --> 00:55:42,840 at the cannes film festival. 811 00:55:47,678 --> 00:55:51,640 Leon, I think I'm kind of falling in love with you. 812 00:55:55,018 --> 00:55:56,770 It's the first time for me, you know. 813 00:55:57,980 --> 00:55:59,189 How do you know it's love 814 00:55:59,273 --> 00:56:01,692 if you've never been in love before? 815 00:56:01,775 --> 00:56:02,818 'Cause I feel it. 816 00:56:05,028 --> 00:56:06,113 Where? 817 00:56:09,533 --> 00:56:11,618 In my stomach. 818 00:56:11,702 --> 00:56:14,705 The reversal of desire with younger women 819 00:56:14,788 --> 00:56:17,749 is completely... 820 00:56:20,627 --> 00:56:23,922 It's ubiquitous, it's pervasive and it's so erroneous 821 00:56:24,006 --> 00:56:25,757 and it's so harmful. 822 00:56:37,853 --> 00:56:39,133 I mean, you see it time and again 823 00:56:39,187 --> 00:56:40,999 in the way that, like, courts will rule in favor 824 00:56:41,023 --> 00:56:42,900 of the predator because they'll say, you know, 825 00:56:42,983 --> 00:56:44,109 "it was consensual." 826 00:56:44,192 --> 00:56:45,986 This whole consensual thing, right? 827 00:56:47,654 --> 00:56:48,822 I don't know. 828 00:56:48,906 --> 00:56:51,783 I don't think the 13 year-old even knew what to consent to. 829 00:57:11,887 --> 00:57:15,057 It's difficult to think of any examples 830 00:57:15,140 --> 00:57:19,186 where boys are shot like this. 831 00:57:19,269 --> 00:57:23,440 In fact, boys are recruited into the male gaze 832 00:57:23,523 --> 00:57:25,400 at a very young age. 833 00:57:29,571 --> 00:57:31,114 Hoochie mama. 834 00:57:32,449 --> 00:57:34,409 What does that mean? 835 00:57:34,493 --> 00:57:36,954 I don't know but it feels right. 836 00:57:42,751 --> 00:57:43,752 Nice. 837 00:57:46,463 --> 00:57:49,675 This right here is a long standing 838 00:57:49,758 --> 00:57:54,054 and very popular shot design angle on a woman's body. 839 00:58:06,358 --> 00:58:10,404 Of course, we have many sexy male stars. 840 00:58:10,487 --> 00:58:12,239 How are they shot? 841 00:58:17,411 --> 00:58:22,833 Almost always full body and involved in some sort of action. 842 00:58:34,553 --> 00:58:37,973 In "crazy rich asians" there's a scene 843 00:58:38,056 --> 00:58:40,392 where the woman character looks with desire 844 00:58:40,475 --> 00:58:42,686 on her boyfriend. 845 00:58:42,769 --> 00:58:44,021 - Hubba, hubba! 846 00:58:44,104 --> 00:58:49,443 Notably, his body is full frame and he moves into action. 847 00:58:53,321 --> 00:58:55,699 Her ' e m cuarén's " roma" 848 00:58:55,782 --> 00:58:59,036 there's an unusual case of full frontal nudity 849 00:58:59,119 --> 00:59:00,787 for a male actor. 850 00:59:00,871 --> 00:59:05,000 And yet consistently it's full frame on his body 851 00:59:05,083 --> 00:59:08,920 and he's involved in a military style action. 852 00:59:27,022 --> 00:59:29,024 Here's even a further example 853 00:59:29,107 --> 00:59:32,527 where we have an overt sexualized object of the gaze, 854 00:59:32,611 --> 00:59:34,821 men performing in a club for women. 855 00:59:34,905 --> 00:59:38,492 And yet amazingly their bodies are not fragmented 856 00:59:38,575 --> 00:59:41,369 for an extended sequence. 857 00:59:41,453 --> 00:59:43,371 I do know and I've been told! 858 00:59:43,455 --> 00:59:45,266 Big dick ritchie got a cock of gold. 859 00:59:45,290 --> 00:59:46,958 - Big dick ritchie got a cock of gold. 860 00:59:47,042 --> 00:59:49,127 - Now, let's give it up for the virgin king. 861 00:59:49,211 --> 00:59:50,962 - Let's give it up for the virgin king! 862 00:59:56,510 --> 01:00:00,097 - There's a kind of taboo on the male body 863 01:00:00,180 --> 01:00:04,518 being exposed as the object of the look. 864 01:00:04,601 --> 01:00:11,024 So he has to be protected by having this energetic drive. 865 01:00:11,108 --> 01:00:13,443 Ho, ho, ho, ho! 866 01:00:13,527 --> 01:00:18,448 On the other hand, the female protagonist 867 01:00:18,532 --> 01:00:21,243 takes on this role of spectacle. 868 01:00:21,326 --> 01:00:23,203 General anesthetic? 869 01:00:23,286 --> 01:00:24,412 General anesthetic. 870 01:00:31,503 --> 01:00:36,299 And the male protagonist is often controlling the movement 871 01:00:36,383 --> 01:00:39,636 of the story forward, controlling people, 872 01:00:39,719 --> 01:00:43,223 controlling the woman and subordinating her 873 01:00:43,306 --> 01:00:46,935 to his will and determination. 874 01:00:52,774 --> 01:00:53,775 How's that? 875 01:00:54,818 --> 01:00:56,027 Perfect. 876 01:01:01,658 --> 01:01:05,287 You know, I always think of the sleeping beauty story 877 01:01:05,370 --> 01:01:08,165 where you have, you know, the fairy tale 878 01:01:08,248 --> 01:01:10,959 that we read as children. 879 01:01:11,042 --> 01:01:14,504 The prince is galloping along and he chops down 880 01:01:14,588 --> 01:01:18,049 all the thorns and he reaches the sleeping beauty. 881 01:01:49,831 --> 01:01:52,292 You look back on a movie now, like "sixteen candles" 882 01:01:52,375 --> 01:01:54,544 "oh my god, that was like a date rape drug." 883 01:01:54,628 --> 01:01:56,087 I mean, trying to get people drunk, 884 01:01:56,171 --> 01:02:00,133 I mean, stuff that we've been programmed to just accept 885 01:02:00,217 --> 01:02:04,346 and actually not accept, embrace, you know, emulate. 886 01:02:32,123 --> 01:02:36,253 In fact, the position of the passive object 887 01:02:36,336 --> 01:02:40,257 is so deeply coded as feminine 888 01:02:40,340 --> 01:02:42,926 and the passivity of that feminine object 889 01:02:43,009 --> 01:02:46,096 is seen as highly sexual, 890 01:02:46,179 --> 01:02:49,057 to a point where, for example, in this scene 891 01:02:49,140 --> 01:02:51,268 from "after hours" 892 01:02:51,351 --> 01:02:56,690 the sexy passive object is so passive, she's actually dead. 893 01:03:07,492 --> 01:03:12,664 I'm dead, in bed, and the camera does go slowly down 894 01:03:12,747 --> 01:03:14,499 the stream of my body. 895 01:03:14,582 --> 01:03:16,422 Yeah, and I look back at that now and just like 896 01:03:16,459 --> 01:03:18,044 "wow, what was I... 897 01:03:18,128 --> 01:03:21,423 It was just part of what you did, you know? 898 01:03:21,506 --> 01:03:22,882 It was part of the storytelling. 899 01:03:26,970 --> 01:03:31,099 Stories about very beautiful, unconscious women 900 01:03:31,182 --> 01:03:34,811 continue to exert a certain fascination. 901 01:03:39,774 --> 01:03:41,401 I didn't realize that as a young man, 902 01:03:41,484 --> 01:03:44,988 I was, in a way, trained to objectify women. 903 01:03:45,071 --> 01:03:47,324 What I found in watching this talk was, 904 01:03:47,407 --> 01:03:51,328 if this woman is the object and we're looking at this woman 905 01:03:51,411 --> 01:03:52,787 from this lens, 906 01:03:52,871 --> 01:03:55,040 we will see so many women from that lens, 907 01:03:55,123 --> 01:03:56,434 which makes us think we can just have 908 01:03:56,458 --> 01:03:58,335 whichever one we want, right? 909 01:03:58,418 --> 01:04:01,504 And when that woman doesn't have the speaking roles, 910 01:04:01,588 --> 01:04:04,924 we see her, like in "raging bull" we can't hear her talk. 911 01:04:05,008 --> 01:04:07,302 So we have no idea of her emotion. 912 01:04:07,385 --> 01:04:09,179 You have no idea of who she is as a person, 913 01:04:09,262 --> 01:04:10,305 to what you were saying. 914 01:04:10,388 --> 01:04:12,682 So it's like, of course I can just objectify these women 915 01:04:12,766 --> 01:04:14,366 and just use them and do whatever I want. 916 01:04:14,392 --> 01:04:16,519 Because even in the imagery that I've seen, 917 01:04:16,603 --> 01:04:19,314 I've never had to think about how she feels 918 01:04:19,397 --> 01:04:20,398 about my actions. 919 01:04:24,486 --> 01:04:28,239 Harry Dean Stanton in complete 3D lighting. 920 01:04:29,449 --> 01:04:30,742 His eyes are closed. 921 01:04:33,703 --> 01:04:35,955 We can hear Natasha kinsky's voice 922 01:04:36,039 --> 01:04:38,333 but we can't see her because we're completely 923 01:04:38,416 --> 01:04:40,210 in his point of view. 924 01:04:40,293 --> 01:04:45,382 When he looks up, we get to see the 2d vision 925 01:04:45,465 --> 01:04:46,466 of the young woman. 926 01:04:49,677 --> 01:04:54,557 If there's anything you want to talk about, 927 01:04:54,641 --> 01:04:56,893 I'll just listen, all right? 928 01:04:58,520 --> 01:05:01,064 I'm a real good listener. 929 01:05:07,570 --> 01:05:09,614 The way we look at films will always change 930 01:05:09,697 --> 01:05:11,825 and there will always be a cultural moment 931 01:05:11,908 --> 01:05:15,161 that may allow us to reflect on a film's impact 932 01:05:15,245 --> 01:05:16,329 in different ways. 933 01:05:16,413 --> 01:05:20,417 There's a nostalgia that is dangerous. 934 01:05:20,500 --> 01:05:23,628 That when you're putting a film in a moment of nostalgia 935 01:05:23,711 --> 01:05:27,298 you are saying that everything it says is perfect 936 01:05:27,382 --> 01:05:31,261 and I think that's where we get into trouble. 937 01:05:31,344 --> 01:05:33,346 Take your clothes off. 938 01:05:33,430 --> 01:05:35,473 Mooki, I already told you it's too fucking hot 939 01:05:35,557 --> 01:05:37,100 to make love. 940 01:05:37,183 --> 01:05:38,351 It's too fucking hot? Yeah. 941 01:05:38,435 --> 01:05:39,769 Why are you always cursing? 942 01:05:39,853 --> 01:05:41,122 I don't fucking curse that much. 943 01:05:41,146 --> 01:05:42,415 Of course you fucking curse that much. 944 01:05:42,439 --> 01:05:43,958 What the hell are you talking about, mooki? 945 01:05:43,982 --> 01:05:45,650 - All you do is curse. - I do not. 946 01:05:45,733 --> 01:05:48,987 Anyway, no rawness is jumping off tonight, all right? 947 01:05:49,070 --> 01:05:50,697 And that's it. 948 01:05:50,780 --> 01:05:51,781 No rawness? 949 01:05:53,158 --> 01:05:55,410 Mooki, come on. 950 01:05:56,536 --> 01:05:58,663 I mean it. I'm not playing. 951 01:05:58,746 --> 01:06:00,165 I'm not playing. 952 01:06:00,248 --> 01:06:03,209 Spike Lee is, of course, the director of this film, 953 01:06:03,293 --> 01:06:06,504 as well as being the main character and the subject. 954 01:06:06,588 --> 01:06:10,884 So, controlling the story on multiple levels. 955 01:06:16,556 --> 01:06:19,809 Look, freeze, don't move, I'll be right back, okay? 956 01:06:19,893 --> 01:06:21,769 Just stay there. 957 01:06:21,853 --> 01:06:24,147 Just stay there. Freeze. Don't move. 958 01:06:24,230 --> 01:06:25,231 I'll be right back. 959 01:06:25,315 --> 01:06:27,235 What the hell you got me standing on the bed for? 960 01:06:27,317 --> 01:06:28,985 Where the hell are you going? 961 01:06:29,068 --> 01:06:30,236 Thank god for the neck. 962 01:06:33,281 --> 01:06:35,492 Thank god for the knee caps. 963 01:06:38,328 --> 01:06:40,121 Thank god for elbows. 964 01:06:41,789 --> 01:06:43,666 Thank god for thighs. 965 01:06:46,294 --> 01:06:47,795 Thank god for the right nipple 966 01:06:50,173 --> 01:06:51,716 thank god for the left nipple. 967 01:06:52,800 --> 01:06:54,260 It feels good. 968 01:06:54,344 --> 01:06:57,055 Ah, you likes you likes you likes. 969 01:06:57,138 --> 01:06:59,682 In this clip, first of all, you, of course, 970 01:06:59,766 --> 01:07:02,268 have the male voice describing the female body 971 01:07:02,352 --> 01:07:03,978 while she's silent. 972 01:07:04,062 --> 01:07:06,814 But there's another interesting aspect to this clip. 973 01:07:09,734 --> 01:07:11,402 The beginning of the scene, 974 01:07:11,486 --> 01:07:15,740 spike Lee is trying to convince this woman 975 01:07:15,823 --> 01:07:19,744 to have sex with him and she's pretty strong in saying no, 976 01:07:19,827 --> 01:07:22,121 but by the time we get to the end of the scene, 977 01:07:22,205 --> 01:07:24,082 she's decided to agree. 978 01:07:24,165 --> 01:07:26,584 And she appears at the end of the scene 979 01:07:26,668 --> 01:07:30,296 to be actually very happy that she said, yes. 980 01:07:33,132 --> 01:07:36,302 This kind of scene where a woman says no, 981 01:07:36,386 --> 01:07:39,013 and the man insists and then in the end she's happy, 982 01:07:39,097 --> 01:07:42,392 this kind of scene we could make a 10 hour lecture, 983 01:07:42,475 --> 01:07:45,770 just going from one example to another, 984 01:07:45,853 --> 01:07:50,275 showing kazillion examples of where that kind of behavior 985 01:07:50,358 --> 01:07:53,444 is normalized and even celebrated. 986 01:07:53,528 --> 01:07:56,489 And this too is a very important reason 987 01:07:56,573 --> 01:08:01,119 why we have an epidemic of sexual abuse and sexual assault. 988 01:08:13,464 --> 01:08:16,134 The sudden change in music tells us exactly 989 01:08:16,217 --> 01:08:18,886 how we're supposed to feel about this scene. 990 01:08:21,723 --> 01:08:25,476 Music is a super important element of every film, 991 01:08:25,560 --> 01:08:30,023 but only 5% of film composers are women. 992 01:08:30,106 --> 01:08:31,774 Will you kiss me? 993 01:08:39,115 --> 01:08:41,159 Did you hear me? 994 01:09:20,198 --> 01:09:24,911 "365 days" was one of the top watched films 995 01:09:24,994 --> 01:09:31,125 in 2020 on Netflix and they are now making 2 sequels. 996 01:09:45,348 --> 01:09:46,516 Excuse me, miss. 997 01:09:53,481 --> 01:09:56,984 Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. 998 01:10:01,614 --> 01:10:02,699 Shut up! 999 01:10:04,242 --> 01:10:05,493 You're hurting me. 1000 01:10:05,576 --> 01:10:07,995 Shut your mouth or I'll really hurt you. 1001 01:10:16,129 --> 01:10:18,464 Remember you promised me you'd come back. 1002 01:10:22,260 --> 01:10:23,553 I promise. 1003 01:10:23,636 --> 01:10:26,055 I just want you to know 1004 01:10:26,139 --> 01:10:28,558 I think 1005 01:10:28,641 --> 01:10:33,187 you're the sweetest guy in the world 1006 01:10:33,271 --> 01:10:34,814 and the most handsome. 1007 01:10:37,358 --> 01:10:40,069 This kind of scene certainly contributed 1008 01:10:40,153 --> 01:10:42,655 to Yale fraternity men shouting 1009 01:10:42,739 --> 01:10:45,116 this in front of a woman's dorm. 1010 01:11:05,136 --> 01:11:09,056 The challenge with media images around sexual assault 1011 01:11:09,140 --> 01:11:12,518 and around rape culture and around how women are portrayed, 1012 01:11:12,602 --> 01:11:15,396 is that it normalizes those types of behaviors 1013 01:11:15,480 --> 01:11:19,484 and so what people absorb is through those images, 1014 01:11:19,567 --> 01:11:21,736 then they absorb those behaviors as normal, 1015 01:11:21,819 --> 01:11:23,988 which then translates to how they treat people 1016 01:11:24,071 --> 01:11:25,948 in the actual world. 1017 01:11:27,325 --> 01:11:31,204 Extensive research over decades has shown 1018 01:11:31,287 --> 01:11:34,749 that after watching sexually objectifying media, 1019 01:11:34,832 --> 01:11:38,836 men are more likely to engage in sexual harassment 1020 01:11:38,920 --> 01:11:40,922 and abuse. 1021 01:11:41,005 --> 01:11:44,175 If you have systems of representation 1022 01:11:44,258 --> 01:11:49,222 that always subjugate certain people and frame them 1023 01:11:49,305 --> 01:11:53,059 and shoot them and always makes them the objects 1024 01:11:53,142 --> 01:11:55,728 of the gaze rather than self acting agents, 1025 01:11:55,812 --> 01:11:58,940 you're more likely to have a culture that is susceptible 1026 01:11:59,023 --> 01:12:00,441 to rape myths. 1027 01:12:00,525 --> 01:12:04,821 The male protagonist is the subject, he is not the object, 1028 01:12:04,904 --> 01:12:07,824 he's the hero, he's who we revere. 1029 01:12:07,907 --> 01:12:10,201 That's very hard to dislodge then, 1030 01:12:10,284 --> 01:12:14,163 when you're faced with a woman telling her truth 1031 01:12:14,247 --> 01:12:15,248 and her story. 1032 01:12:23,297 --> 01:12:26,259 80% of the entertainment media content 1033 01:12:26,342 --> 01:12:30,513 that is distributed around the world is made in Hollywood. 1034 01:12:53,411 --> 01:12:56,581 These images are coming from an industry 1035 01:12:56,664 --> 01:12:58,958 that is built on power imbalances, 1036 01:12:59,041 --> 01:13:01,752 which results in sexual harassment and abuse 1037 01:13:01,836 --> 01:13:03,379 in the work place. 1038 01:13:03,462 --> 01:13:05,590 And the cycle goes round and round. 1039 01:13:13,347 --> 01:13:14,616 One of the people 1040 01:13:14,640 --> 01:13:16,309 who was involved with the studio 1041 01:13:16,392 --> 01:13:18,102 asked to meet me for dinner. 1042 01:13:20,438 --> 01:13:21,958 He was like, "you could play her roles, 1043 01:13:22,023 --> 01:13:23,441 you'll be like the next one." 1044 01:13:23,524 --> 01:13:26,694 And I'm thinking, yeah, he's right. I could be like that. 1045 01:13:26,777 --> 01:13:28,362 And I do, I love her. She's great. 1046 01:13:28,446 --> 01:13:31,574 But you know, he was like, but you have to do this. 1047 01:13:34,493 --> 01:13:37,246 I was just thinking like, "oh, I can't wait to get home. 1048 01:13:37,330 --> 01:13:39,749 I wish I hadn't had talked to this guy tonight" 1049 01:13:39,832 --> 01:13:41,626 because I couldn't see it ending well. 1050 01:13:41,709 --> 01:13:44,587 He was still talking the whole way 1051 01:13:44,670 --> 01:13:47,381 and he was getting more and more agitated as we drove 1052 01:13:47,465 --> 01:13:51,844 because I was still just politely declining his offer. 1053 01:13:51,928 --> 01:13:55,097 And he said, "I want you to take a nude jacuzzi with me. 1054 01:13:55,181 --> 01:13:57,308 Can you just come right now and take this?" 1055 01:13:57,391 --> 01:13:58,643 This is ridiculous. 1056 01:13:59,769 --> 01:14:02,063 I started to get out of the car 1057 01:14:02,146 --> 01:14:08,152 and he reached across me 1058 01:14:08,235 --> 01:14:10,988 and palmed the window 1059 01:14:11,072 --> 01:14:14,241 on my side and put it, and blocked me with his arm. 1060 01:14:14,325 --> 01:14:20,164 And he said, "look, I can help you or I can fuck you up!" 1061 01:14:24,752 --> 01:14:28,923 Through the me too movement, we know that 94% 1062 01:14:29,006 --> 01:14:31,801 think about it, 94% of women in Hollywood, 1063 01:14:31,884 --> 01:14:34,095 whether they're actresses or behind the camera 1064 01:14:34,178 --> 01:14:36,806 experienced sexual harassment or assault. 1065 01:14:36,889 --> 01:14:38,659 Because people think the entertainment industry 1066 01:14:38,683 --> 01:14:39,684 is magical, 1067 01:14:39,767 --> 01:14:41,894 they don't remember that these are workers, 1068 01:14:41,978 --> 01:14:45,189 that these are actual human beings who are on your screen. 1069 01:14:45,272 --> 01:14:48,693 The thought pattern or the assumption 1070 01:14:48,776 --> 01:14:51,612 that the actor's body is fair play, 1071 01:14:51,696 --> 01:14:54,365 both within the role and outside of the role, 1072 01:14:54,448 --> 01:14:57,451 has been part of, you know, 1073 01:14:57,535 --> 01:14:59,662 sort of the industry's mindset. 1074 01:14:59,745 --> 01:15:03,374 It absolutely was that if an actor said no, 1075 01:15:03,457 --> 01:15:05,584 in any way shape or form, 1076 01:15:05,668 --> 01:15:09,213 they were absolutely considered a troublemaker, certainly, 1077 01:15:09,296 --> 01:15:12,174 and they would absolutely be in fear of their job. 1078 01:15:12,258 --> 01:15:13,300 They were disposable. 1079 01:15:25,396 --> 01:15:27,857 Yeah, Lara are you there? 1080 01:15:27,940 --> 01:15:30,693 I'm just sitting here, hoping to hear from you. 1081 01:15:30,776 --> 01:15:33,029 I don't care if it's three o'clock in the morning. 1082 01:15:33,112 --> 01:15:35,448 I can't imagine what would be so important 1083 01:15:35,531 --> 01:15:37,700 to cause you to do that to yourself. 1084 01:15:39,452 --> 01:15:42,163 Please think very seriously and call me tonight 1085 01:15:42,246 --> 01:15:45,374 because I think we can fix this. 1086 01:15:45,458 --> 01:15:47,793 If we can get you back to work in time 1087 01:15:47,877 --> 01:15:51,297 to not have it destroy your life. 1088 01:15:56,969 --> 01:16:03,059 So that is the message I came home to back in 1989 1089 01:16:03,142 --> 01:16:08,022 after refusing to do a sex scene that was not in my script. 1090 01:16:08,105 --> 01:16:11,067 And it basically, effectively, ended my acting career. 1091 01:16:11,150 --> 01:16:13,360 Exactly what she said. 1092 01:16:13,444 --> 01:16:15,529 I think there's always gonna be a power dynamic 1093 01:16:15,613 --> 01:16:18,491 with people on set unconsciously, 1094 01:16:18,574 --> 01:16:21,202 whether they wanna verbalize it or not, intellectually 1095 01:16:21,285 --> 01:16:24,580 and I feel it and I've experienced it. 1096 01:16:24,663 --> 01:16:26,540 I've been in a couple of situations 1097 01:16:26,624 --> 01:16:29,251 where I'm like trying to improvise 1098 01:16:29,335 --> 01:16:32,171 and someone, the director, chimes in and says, 1099 01:16:32,254 --> 01:16:33,547 "okay, now get down on your knees 1100 01:16:33,631 --> 01:16:35,674 and give this man a blowjob." 1101 01:16:35,758 --> 01:16:37,635 Which is like non-consensual, 1102 01:16:37,718 --> 01:16:39,303 they didn't talk to my representatives, 1103 01:16:39,386 --> 01:16:40,513 they didn't talk to me 1104 01:16:40,596 --> 01:16:42,723 and so I'm like a deer in the headlights, 1105 01:16:42,807 --> 01:16:44,141 that's like pressure, 1106 01:16:44,225 --> 01:16:46,352 that's like, the crew is watching, 1107 01:16:46,435 --> 01:16:47,478 what are you gonna say? 1108 01:16:47,561 --> 01:16:49,563 Cry and go like, "please don't make me do this?" 1109 01:16:54,693 --> 01:16:58,823 This problem is not limited to Hollywood. 1110 01:16:58,906 --> 01:17:02,284 Léa seydoux, star of "blue is the warmest color" 1111 01:17:02,368 --> 01:17:06,455 said that the excessive hours spent naked filming sex scenes 1112 01:17:06,539 --> 01:17:10,918 was humiliating and left her feeling like a prostitute. 1113 01:17:12,419 --> 01:17:15,214 The film won the top prize at cannes. 1114 01:17:18,467 --> 01:17:22,096 Maybe that's why in his next films, 1115 01:17:22,179 --> 01:17:24,640 the "mektoub, my love" series, 1116 01:17:24,723 --> 01:17:26,350 which premiered at the prestigious 1117 01:17:26,433 --> 01:17:28,686 venice international film festival, 1118 01:17:28,769 --> 01:17:31,814 director kechiche felt empowered to use 1119 01:17:31,897 --> 01:17:35,317 even more coercive methods on set. 1120 01:17:35,401 --> 01:17:39,029 Reportedly including the very heavy use of alcohol 1121 01:17:39,113 --> 01:17:44,869 in order to obtain his unsimulated sex scenes. 1122 01:17:44,952 --> 01:17:46,388 And then the statements from directors 1123 01:17:46,412 --> 01:17:49,123 saying "oh, I wanted to get an authentic reaction 1124 01:17:49,206 --> 01:17:50,249 from somebody." 1125 01:17:50,332 --> 01:17:52,710 Well, that's not the realm of make believe, 1126 01:17:52,793 --> 01:17:54,587 that isn't the realm of drama. 1127 01:17:54,670 --> 01:17:58,465 That's the realm of actually choosing to assault somebody 1128 01:17:58,549 --> 01:18:01,051 for the sake of art, or in the name of art. 1129 01:18:01,135 --> 01:18:04,388 How is rape culture normalized? 1130 01:18:04,471 --> 01:18:07,683 - Its ok, don't mind me, keep on going. 1131 01:18:07,766 --> 01:18:09,560 There are really three key elements 1132 01:18:09,643 --> 01:18:13,022 that we see on the screen and in real life. 1133 01:18:13,105 --> 01:18:17,610 One is the objectification of women's bodies, 1134 01:18:17,693 --> 01:18:21,530 another is the glamorization of sexual assault, 1135 01:18:21,614 --> 01:18:22,990 especially on the screen. 1136 01:18:29,371 --> 01:18:33,542 And the third is disregard for women's rights and safety. 1137 01:18:33,626 --> 01:18:37,838 Even if a hand is not laid on another person, 1138 01:18:37,922 --> 01:18:41,550 these are all of the elements that create an environment 1139 01:18:41,634 --> 01:18:46,180 that allows one group to gain and maintain power 1140 01:18:46,263 --> 01:18:47,348 over another. 1141 01:19:09,286 --> 01:19:14,291 I look back at my encounter with Harvey weinstein 1142 01:19:14,375 --> 01:19:16,585 at the Beverly Hills hotel. 1143 01:19:27,388 --> 01:19:30,891 He was in his white bath robe 1144 01:19:30,975 --> 01:19:33,102 and he wanted me to... 1145 01:19:33,185 --> 01:19:35,187 His penis was coming out of his robe 1146 01:19:35,271 --> 01:19:37,731 and he wanted a massage. 1147 01:19:37,815 --> 01:19:41,527 I was like no, but I'll get you a masseuse 1148 01:19:41,610 --> 01:19:44,989 and heart racing, how do I get out of here? 1149 01:19:45,072 --> 01:19:47,283 And he says I'm making a very big mistake, 1150 01:19:47,366 --> 01:19:49,743 "you're making a very big mistake." 1151 01:19:49,827 --> 01:19:51,495 And I said "I'll never be that girl." 1152 01:20:06,844 --> 01:20:09,471 The me too movement spoke out loud about 1153 01:20:09,555 --> 01:20:13,475 what so many of us had experienced privately. 1154 01:20:16,979 --> 01:20:22,234 In my own fiction films I often tried to express cinematically 1155 01:20:22,318 --> 01:20:26,196 how it really feels to be a sexualized object. 1156 01:20:47,509 --> 01:20:51,138 "Magdalena viraga" was my first feature film, 1157 01:20:51,221 --> 01:20:53,599 which I made at the ucla film school. 1158 01:21:01,815 --> 01:21:04,485 It stars my own sister, actress, 1159 01:21:04,568 --> 01:21:08,530 and long time collaborator, tinka menkes. 1160 01:21:14,036 --> 01:21:18,791 This is one of 5 films we made together. 1161 01:21:21,418 --> 01:21:26,757 Here, she's playing a highly alienated prostitute. 1162 01:21:42,815 --> 01:21:45,526 The issues that we are talking about, 1163 01:21:45,609 --> 01:21:50,531 they are not just, you know, the images that we see 1164 01:21:50,614 --> 01:21:51,782 in films, 1165 01:21:51,865 --> 01:21:54,535 you know, they are not just who's behind the camera. 1166 01:21:54,618 --> 01:21:59,456 The issue is also in this larger context 1167 01:22:01,083 --> 01:22:03,544 of who decides what gets seen. 1168 01:22:05,087 --> 01:22:10,801 You know, we have mostly men making decisions 1169 01:22:10,884 --> 01:22:13,178 around what gets distributed. 1170 01:22:13,262 --> 01:22:19,435 It's what gets out into the world is curated by a male gaze. 1171 01:22:22,104 --> 01:22:23,188 - Hello, handsome. 1172 01:22:26,942 --> 01:22:30,654 Even in this Sci-Fi vision of the future, 1173 01:22:30,737 --> 01:22:33,574 we get the same old male subject, 1174 01:22:33,657 --> 01:22:36,743 sexualized female object once again. 1175 01:22:36,827 --> 01:22:37,828 - You look lonely. 1176 01:22:39,746 --> 01:22:41,248 I can fix that. 1177 01:22:41,331 --> 01:22:43,917 This cinematic visual language 1178 01:22:44,001 --> 01:22:46,503 which surrounds us on all sides 1179 01:22:46,587 --> 01:22:51,925 can really feel like the bedrock language of rape culture. 1180 01:22:59,391 --> 01:23:04,021 In fact, the name of the female lead character in this film, 1181 01:23:04,104 --> 01:23:07,608 played by Ana de armas, is joy. 1182 01:23:07,691 --> 01:23:12,404 But they spelled it interestingly, j-o-i. 1183 01:23:12,488 --> 01:23:19,077 In porn culture, j-o-i stands for jerk off instructions. 1184 01:23:21,663 --> 01:23:25,584 So just think how women feel when they go see this film, 1185 01:23:25,667 --> 01:23:28,295 then they hear about all the academy award nominations 1186 01:23:28,378 --> 01:23:29,963 that it's getting or got. 1187 01:23:33,050 --> 01:23:36,094 - It's this horrible cycle that Hollywood has, 1188 01:23:36,178 --> 01:23:40,140 because it takes in what the population has that's toxic 1189 01:23:40,224 --> 01:23:42,184 and then it feeds it right back, 1190 01:23:42,267 --> 01:23:44,561 which then energizes it and brings it right back. 1191 01:23:44,645 --> 01:23:46,939 So there is this circle of violence. 1192 01:23:49,566 --> 01:23:53,028 This is all connected, it's all connected. 1193 01:23:59,660 --> 01:24:03,956 - One key principle of feminism was that the female body 1194 01:24:04,039 --> 01:24:05,749 was a sight of struggle. 1195 01:24:05,832 --> 01:24:12,839 But, it shifted to realizing that the image 1196 01:24:13,465 --> 01:24:17,427 of the female body was also a sight of struggle. 1197 01:24:17,511 --> 01:24:20,889 The image does not refer to women. 1198 01:24:20,973 --> 01:24:25,060 This image is being appropriated and produced 1199 01:24:25,143 --> 01:24:27,020 by male consciousness. 1200 01:24:34,528 --> 01:24:36,822 All of these techniques, 1201 01:24:36,905 --> 01:24:38,105 they're definitely deliberate. 1202 01:24:38,156 --> 01:24:41,535 We don't know if they're conscious or unconscious, 1203 01:24:41,618 --> 01:24:42,786 but they're deliberate. 1204 01:24:44,162 --> 01:24:45,330 Deliberate decisions. 1205 01:24:45,414 --> 01:24:48,208 Someone made a decision how to shoot that person. 1206 01:24:52,838 --> 01:24:55,799 It's worth taking a moment to consider 1207 01:24:55,882 --> 01:24:58,218 that the objectifying camera techniques 1208 01:24:58,302 --> 01:25:02,264 we've been discussing can also sometimes be seen 1209 01:25:02,347 --> 01:25:06,768 in other types of very telling contexts. 1210 01:25:08,395 --> 01:25:11,398 For example, in "silence of the lambs" 1211 01:25:11,481 --> 01:25:15,068 the character buffalo bill is in the masculine zone 1212 01:25:15,152 --> 01:25:17,904 with the goggles as the murderer 1213 01:25:17,988 --> 01:25:21,992 with Jodie foster as the object of his gaze. 1214 01:25:25,579 --> 01:25:28,832 But, when he is feminizing himself, 1215 01:25:28,915 --> 01:25:32,377 when he's in the so called feminine position, 1216 01:25:32,461 --> 01:25:35,255 he is shot just like a woman. 1217 01:25:38,759 --> 01:25:40,594 - Watching the scene with buffalo bill 1218 01:25:40,677 --> 01:25:43,263 when you have this almost deformation of self 1219 01:25:43,347 --> 01:25:47,601 to uphold this white male gaze behind the camera, 1220 01:25:47,684 --> 01:25:50,562 it was the internalized sexism and internalized misogyny 1221 01:25:50,646 --> 01:25:52,773 that was showing up in that space for that character. 1222 01:25:52,856 --> 01:25:54,191 It's not only for cis women, 1223 01:25:54,274 --> 01:25:56,526 but also trans folks and other folks 1224 01:25:56,610 --> 01:25:59,404 who don't fit the boundaries. 1225 01:25:59,488 --> 01:26:02,032 As I was re-watching the scene and just remembering 1226 01:26:02,115 --> 01:26:05,243 how much trauma has been caused by a scene like that. 1227 01:26:10,957 --> 01:26:13,168 So I'm gonna show you a film now 1228 01:26:13,251 --> 01:26:15,921 that is not an a list movie. 1229 01:26:16,004 --> 01:26:18,256 In fact, it's probably an f. 1230 01:26:18,340 --> 01:26:23,053 It's been called racist trash by Roger ebert. 1231 01:26:23,136 --> 01:26:24,429 And I would agree with that. 1232 01:26:24,513 --> 01:26:27,349 But I'd like to take a look at the scene today, 1233 01:26:27,432 --> 01:26:30,227 as it's quite relevant for our analysis. 1234 01:26:32,854 --> 01:26:38,068 We have a white plantation owner who calls a black slave 1235 01:26:38,151 --> 01:26:39,403 to come to her room. 1236 01:26:43,699 --> 01:26:48,245 She informs him that if he doesn't have sex with her, 1237 01:26:48,328 --> 01:26:50,163 that she will report him as a rapist, 1238 01:26:50,247 --> 01:26:52,499 which would be a death sentence for him. 1239 01:26:52,582 --> 01:26:54,960 So basically she's raping him. 1240 01:26:58,380 --> 01:27:02,134 The camera pans up from a fragmented body part. 1241 01:27:07,222 --> 01:27:12,561 Notice who's wearing the clothes and who is being undressed. 1242 01:27:38,420 --> 01:27:43,633 The woman is in control of the scene on many levels. 1243 01:27:52,434 --> 01:27:54,561 -Ah, ah! 1244 01:27:54,644 --> 01:27:59,149 And finally we get a long sexy body pan. 1245 01:28:05,197 --> 01:28:08,241 The reason I've included this clip as cringe worthy 1246 01:28:08,325 --> 01:28:09,367 as it is, 1247 01:28:09,451 --> 01:28:12,829 is I feel it's the exception that proves the rule. 1248 01:28:12,913 --> 01:28:15,624 And when we're talking about these scenes, 1249 01:28:15,707 --> 01:28:19,711 they're not really about sex. 1250 01:28:19,795 --> 01:28:25,967 They're about power and the person who is shot like this 1251 01:28:26,051 --> 01:28:27,385 is not empowered. 1252 01:28:28,762 --> 01:28:32,724 So the example of "mandingo" shows that 1253 01:28:32,808 --> 01:28:35,602 shot design systematically perpetuates 1254 01:28:35,685 --> 01:28:41,233 these power dynamics that exist within our society. 1255 01:28:41,316 --> 01:28:45,237 So in that film you see the same like sweeping pans 1256 01:28:45,320 --> 01:28:47,739 of his body, the fragments of him. 1257 01:28:47,823 --> 01:28:50,659 The true essence of like what we're talking about here 1258 01:28:50,742 --> 01:28:52,327 has to do with power. 1259 01:28:52,410 --> 01:28:58,583 And commodification of bodies and how bodies relate 1260 01:28:58,667 --> 01:29:01,127 to each other in terms of power. 1261 01:29:04,256 --> 01:29:07,175 When you have, as foucault says, webs, 1262 01:29:07,259 --> 01:29:08,677 webs of ideology 1263 01:29:08,760 --> 01:29:10,512 and they are all interlocking 1264 01:29:10,595 --> 01:29:13,139 and they're all reinforcing a certain way of looking 1265 01:29:13,223 --> 01:29:16,434 and a certain way of experience that you're locked out of, 1266 01:29:16,518 --> 01:29:20,272 it takes a lot of strength to say, 1267 01:29:20,355 --> 01:29:21,690 "I don't see things this way 1268 01:29:21,773 --> 01:29:26,820 and I'm going to create something that is different." 1269 01:29:36,413 --> 01:29:40,458 The sexual predators in amirpour's film 1270 01:29:40,542 --> 01:29:44,212 meet a very unexpected avenger. 1271 01:30:01,938 --> 01:30:04,149 There's a saying that people say that if people 1272 01:30:04,232 --> 01:30:06,610 were to get rid of all the sexual predators 1273 01:30:06,693 --> 01:30:08,987 that there would be no film industry. 1274 01:30:09,070 --> 01:30:10,756 And they would have to start from the ground up 1275 01:30:10,780 --> 01:30:12,741 and they laugh about it. 1276 01:30:12,824 --> 01:30:14,534 They're like, "haha you know, we would have 1277 01:30:14,618 --> 01:30:15,761 to start from scratch." And I'm like, 1278 01:30:15,785 --> 01:30:18,288 then let's fucking start from scratch. 1279 01:30:18,371 --> 01:30:19,789 You have to build your own house 1280 01:30:19,873 --> 01:30:22,876 and you need your own tools to build your house, 1281 01:30:22,959 --> 01:30:28,840 and your tools are your creativity, your work, 1282 01:30:28,924 --> 01:30:34,763 your work ethic and your ability to produce above and beyond 1283 01:30:34,846 --> 01:30:39,809 what someone else is clamoring for, let's say. 1284 01:30:45,190 --> 01:30:48,860 Women directors often depict their characters 1285 01:30:48,944 --> 01:30:54,032 as full on subjects with their own intense desires. 1286 01:30:56,284 --> 01:30:58,995 Nature, nature, I am your bride. 1287 01:30:59,955 --> 01:31:01,122 Take me. 1288 01:31:12,884 --> 01:31:17,347 Dunye's "watermelon woman" makes the close ups so close 1289 01:31:17,430 --> 01:31:21,393 that we feel the sensation of the experience 1290 01:31:21,476 --> 01:31:25,730 and we are blocked from gazing in the traditional way. 1291 01:31:35,323 --> 01:31:39,703 Without question, throughout the history of cinema, 1292 01:31:39,786 --> 01:31:45,000 sex scenes have been shot with the male gaze appropriating 1293 01:31:45,083 --> 01:31:46,918 and objectifying women's bodies. 1294 01:31:47,002 --> 01:31:50,755 If that's what we do 1295 01:31:50,839 --> 01:31:55,135 then there's a lack of imagination 1296 01:31:55,218 --> 01:31:57,220 that we'll have to make up for ourselves. 1297 01:32:00,098 --> 01:32:02,642 In this scene, Gus Van sant 1298 01:32:02,726 --> 01:32:05,145 shoots male and female bodies 1299 01:32:05,228 --> 01:32:06,396 very equally. 1300 01:32:09,691 --> 01:32:11,651 Van sant may have been influenced 1301 01:32:11,735 --> 01:32:13,903 by Agnes varda's film, 1302 01:32:13,987 --> 01:32:15,530 "happiness." 1303 01:32:40,638 --> 01:32:43,475 In my own film, "phantom love" 1304 01:32:43,558 --> 01:32:47,687 the sex scene tries to focus on the woman's psychic 1305 01:32:47,771 --> 01:32:50,315 internal experience. 1306 01:33:06,206 --> 01:33:09,167 For tarkovsky lovers, you'll notice my homage. 1307 01:33:24,933 --> 01:33:28,770 I think of this poem by Gwendolyn Brooks that, 1308 01:33:28,853 --> 01:33:31,231 it's "still do I keep my look, my identity." 1309 01:33:31,314 --> 01:33:34,359 And she talks about how each body has its art 1310 01:33:34,442 --> 01:33:39,823 and how they're like, whether they're in a state of abject 1311 01:33:39,906 --> 01:33:42,700 whatever, or they're in an exalted state, 1312 01:33:42,784 --> 01:33:46,037 they still maintain this intrinsic human quality 1313 01:33:46,121 --> 01:33:47,664 within them. 1314 01:33:51,042 --> 01:33:54,546 In "Juniper tree" nietzchka keene focuses on 1315 01:33:54,629 --> 01:33:57,841 the inner life of her characters. 1316 01:34:11,187 --> 01:34:14,023 People often feel, you know, I should be freed 1317 01:34:14,107 --> 01:34:16,860 from all those things that are unconsciously soaked 1318 01:34:16,943 --> 01:34:18,736 into our own mind. 1319 01:34:18,820 --> 01:34:23,158 Those emotions are always accumulated somewhere hidden, 1320 01:34:23,241 --> 01:34:26,828 so that's the part which is anger or, you know, 1321 01:34:26,911 --> 01:34:30,165 the sadness or dissatisfaction, 1322 01:34:30,248 --> 01:34:33,418 all these emotions are, I imagine, like cooking, 1323 01:34:33,501 --> 01:34:38,256 these things are ingredients of your meal. 1324 01:34:38,339 --> 01:34:41,551 So you chop, you know, you cook, 1325 01:34:41,634 --> 01:34:43,303 you do all these things, 1326 01:34:43,386 --> 01:34:48,516 but, by the end, you'd like to get some nice dish. 1327 01:34:48,600 --> 01:34:51,853 So it's a transformation of this raw material. 1328 01:34:51,936 --> 01:34:54,981 Which has lots of creative energy in there. 1329 01:35:17,670 --> 01:35:19,589 Ugh! 1330 01:35:41,694 --> 01:35:46,824 Films about female rage have been made by women 1331 01:35:46,908 --> 01:35:49,494 for many, many generations. 1332 01:35:49,577 --> 01:35:52,247 So there's a history, there's a legacy, 1333 01:35:52,330 --> 01:35:56,209 but today there's something very different in the climate, 1334 01:35:56,292 --> 01:35:58,086 social, political climate 1335 01:35:58,169 --> 01:36:00,213 that is connected to mainstream media. 1336 01:36:00,296 --> 01:36:05,510 And so, it's a really unique moment for filmmakers 1337 01:36:05,593 --> 01:36:08,263 for women filmmakers who are interested 1338 01:36:08,346 --> 01:36:10,598 in taking on these issues. 1339 01:36:15,311 --> 01:36:18,815 What are you doing? It's okay. 1340 01:36:18,898 --> 01:36:20,566 What are you doing? 1341 01:36:23,111 --> 01:36:28,032 What are you doing? 1342 01:36:46,134 --> 01:36:49,804 Hey, I said what are you doing? 1343 01:36:53,224 --> 01:36:57,145 When it comes to money and when it comes to opportunity, 1344 01:36:57,228 --> 01:36:59,605 things don't change unless you force change. 1345 01:36:59,689 --> 01:37:03,860 My having been able to take this issue to the aclu, 1346 01:37:03,943 --> 01:37:08,656 who began their campaign for women directors in 2014, 1347 01:37:08,740 --> 01:37:13,619 and the eeoc, equal employment opportunity commission, 1348 01:37:13,703 --> 01:37:16,956 that began their investigation in 2015, 1349 01:37:17,040 --> 01:37:21,502 attacking the pocketbooks of the studios for violation 1350 01:37:21,586 --> 01:37:24,797 of title 7, which is equal employment opportunity law. 1351 01:37:26,841 --> 01:37:31,721 So right now, in 2021 we are beginning to see 1352 01:37:31,804 --> 01:37:33,765 the results of this action. 1353 01:37:36,267 --> 01:37:39,520 In a historic sign of real change, 1354 01:37:39,604 --> 01:37:43,816 Chloe zhao, a woman of color, won the academy award 1355 01:37:43,900 --> 01:37:46,694 for best picture and best director. 1356 01:37:48,571 --> 01:37:51,866 Hey, find anything interesting? 1357 01:37:51,949 --> 01:37:54,077 Rocks! 1358 01:37:54,160 --> 01:37:56,579 Her film features the perspective 1359 01:37:56,662 --> 01:37:59,415 of a woman in her 605. 1360 01:38:02,085 --> 01:38:03,795 What does desire look like 1361 01:38:03,878 --> 01:38:08,549 when it's not about subject and object? 1362 01:38:08,633 --> 01:38:14,055 I think we're in a process of discovery, you know. 1363 01:38:14,138 --> 01:38:17,475 Each of us obviously is in a process of discovery 1364 01:38:17,558 --> 01:38:20,019 for ourselves in our own lives. 1365 01:38:20,103 --> 01:38:22,939 So now as a filmmaker, as a non-binary filmmaker, 1366 01:38:23,022 --> 01:38:25,233 I'm asking myself, where does the camera go? 1367 01:38:26,984 --> 01:38:28,344 These questions that you're asking, 1368 01:38:28,403 --> 01:38:30,530 well, where does the camera go? 1369 01:38:30,613 --> 01:38:32,031 And who am I looking at? 1370 01:38:32,115 --> 01:38:34,325 Am I showing how it feels to be looked at? 1371 01:38:36,452 --> 01:38:37,995 And am I showing how it feels to see 1372 01:38:38,079 --> 01:38:40,581 while I'm being looked at? 1373 01:38:40,665 --> 01:38:42,917 What is the heroine's journey? 1374 01:38:46,796 --> 01:38:48,923 "Portrait of a lady on fire" 1375 01:38:49,006 --> 01:38:50,425 is concerned with the issue 1376 01:38:50,508 --> 01:38:54,429 of subject and object in the case of two women 1377 01:38:54,512 --> 01:38:57,932 who seem to desire each other equally. 1378 01:39:45,021 --> 01:39:47,940 Here we get the question of, what is a subject, 1379 01:39:48,024 --> 01:39:49,442 what is an object? 1380 01:39:49,525 --> 01:39:53,738 And how does the object find a way of becoming, 1381 01:39:53,821 --> 01:39:55,531 discovering their own subjectivity, 1382 01:39:55,615 --> 01:39:58,451 having their own subjectivity and becoming a subject, 1383 01:39:58,534 --> 01:40:01,120 which changes the power dynamic. 1384 01:40:14,133 --> 01:40:19,222 In my own films, working with tinka, 1385 01:40:19,305 --> 01:40:23,643 she often broke through the 4th wall 1386 01:40:23,726 --> 01:40:27,522 and confronted the camera, 1387 01:40:27,605 --> 01:40:32,652 claiming her own subjective perception 1388 01:40:32,735 --> 01:40:35,655 of both herself and the world. 1389 01:41:59,780 --> 01:42:02,366 Would you like a ride? 1390 01:42:31,437 --> 01:42:33,856 Whether you're a heterosexual man 1391 01:42:33,939 --> 01:42:36,776 or you're a woman or you're anything in between 1392 01:42:36,859 --> 01:42:38,361 or on the sides or whatever, 1393 01:42:38,444 --> 01:42:43,949 you know, how do I actually experience desire? 1394 01:42:44,033 --> 01:42:48,454 How do I actually experience my day? 1395 01:42:48,537 --> 01:42:51,415 You know, because we've been taught, what is time? 1396 01:42:51,499 --> 01:42:52,500 What is sex? 1397 01:42:52,583 --> 01:42:54,168 What is a man? What is a woman? 1398 01:42:54,251 --> 01:42:55,795 We've been taught all these things 1399 01:42:55,878 --> 01:42:57,922 and if we just accept it, 1400 01:42:58,005 --> 01:43:02,426 we're trapped in the collective consciousness 1401 01:43:02,510 --> 01:43:05,388 which tends to be on a kind of low level. 1402 01:43:09,517 --> 01:43:12,937 What happens if you try to listen inward, 1403 01:43:13,020 --> 01:43:18,818 if you try to tune in on a very, very, very delicate 1404 01:43:18,901 --> 01:43:24,365 and quiet way to what you're actually experiencing 1405 01:43:24,448 --> 01:43:30,037 and what would be actually the true expression 1406 01:43:30,121 --> 01:43:33,165 of that experience as translated into a shot.