Garage Screen continues to explore topics connected to the representation of women in film and presents a series of screenings and public events about to the relationship between women and the movie camera.
According to the theory of the cinematic apparatus, introduced in the 1970s by Jean-Louis Baudry, the movie camera is a powerful tool for manipulation. It directs narratives, meanings, and the viewer’s attention. The camera can be active: mobile, able to assume a subjective perspective. Such a camera presents a gaze, be it a male gaze or a female gaze, to quote the terms coined by Laura Mulvey around the same time. The camera can also be static, observing the protagonist from a distance. In any case, a double system of relationships is formed: with the maker of the film and with the profilmic space—its world and the protagonists in front of the camera. These relationships, which are the main focus of the program, can be summed up in the formula «a woman—a camera—a woman, ” referring to the woman in front of the camera, the woman behind the camera, and the camera itself as an agent of meaning.
The three screenings will present three perspectives, three modes of being for the protagonists in front of the camera: being alone with oneself in Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles; being alone with another woman in Delphine Seyrig’s Be Pretty and Shut Up; and, finally, being alone with a man in 1001 Frames by Mehrnoush Alia. All the films in the program insistently point to the presence of a camera, in each case static and simply fixing the profilmic reality, which is, however, in each case very different.
When making Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Chantal Akerman was inspired by La Région Centrale (1971) by Michael Snow, his machine-operated camera, and the principle of non-intervention. She created her own relationship between the body, duration, and the film narrative: her protagonist Jeanne is imprisoned inside the frame and in her daily routines and rituals, which due to the absence of editing and the static frame seem to be suspended in a vacuum.
For Delphine Seyrig, the maker of Be Pretty and Shut Up (and the actress in Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman), the camera is a mediator. Her film consists of over 20 interviews with actresses, including Jane Fonda, Anne Wiazemsky, Shirley MacLaine, Maria Schneider, and Juliet Berto. While Seyrig studies—and listens to—her protagonists, her miniature Sony Portapak allows her to work without a camera operator. Thus, the camera becomes an extension of the interviewer’s body.
In 1001 Frames by Mehrnoush Alia, the camera, static as in the previous works, becomes aggressive, following the actresses during a casting and operated by the director. Here, it is no longer a tool used by a fellow female filmmaker: it belongs to a man who has the power and is ready to abuse it.
The three discussions that accompany the screenings will look at the relationship «a woman—a camera—a woman» in a broader context. The discussion The Liberating Potential of Technology will cover the relationship with the medium not only in film but also in media art and gaming. Dance Without Dance. On the Film Jeanne Dielman will explore the film’s specific temporality and corporeality, drawing on the knowledge borrowed from dance practices. Women and Cinematography in the Middle East will look into the sociocultural context behind the film 1001 Frames.