Gender and art

L’association Carole Roussopoulos a pour objectif de valoriser l'oeuvre de la vidéaste et féministe Carole Roussopoulos.

"Grèves ouvrières, luttes anti-impérialistes, mouvements révolutionnaires et féministes, la vidéaste Carole Roussopoulos a constitué tout au long de sa vie une mémoire en images des résistances à l'oppression.

Pionnière de la vidéo, elle a réalisé et monté près de 150 documentaires, toujours dans une perspective féministe et humaniste. [...]"

Chaque trimestre l'association propose en libre accès sur le site un documentaire de Carole Roussopoulos., actuellement "LIP : Christiane et Monique" (1976, 30 min.).

Assia Djebar’s Forgotten Films: La Nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua (1978) and La Zerda, ou les chants de l’oubli (1982).

The exhibition Lives of Performers is a tribute to the legendary American dancer, choreographer and filmmaker Yvonne Rainer. Born in 1934 and one of the founders of the Judson Dance Theatre, Rainer has been a major influence on subsequent generations of artists. After applying to choreography the results of her research into everyday interplay between the private and the political, she then transposed them into her film work.

The Yvonne Rainer Project

25 October 2014–8 February 2015

La Ferme du Buisson, Noisiel, France

http://www.lafermedubuisson.com/THE-YVONNE-RAINER-PROJECT-UK.html

"The Bechdel test only scratches the surface of getting more women into meaningful roles in films, writes Stefan Solomon.

Four cinemas in Sweden recently pledged to rate films based on whether they pass what is known as the “Bechdel test,” a means of evaluating gender bias in film, named after American graphic artist Alison Bechdel. Only films that pass the test will be given an “A rating”.

The rules for the test, modelled on a comic strip from 1985 (see above), are as follows:

The film has to have at least two women in it.

The two women must talk to each other.

They must talk about something besides a man.

While it might not seem too hard to meet these criteria, at the time of writing, only around half of the 4,537 films surveyed in this online database obey all three of the rules. [...]

The major issue with the Bechdel test is that it only demands small modifications to the narrative events in the movies we watch, and doesn’t ask for any deep, structural changes. Ultimately, the test ends up telling us that the content of a film is more important than its form; that is to say, we are being told that what is most important about women on screen is simply what they do, not how they are shown to do it.

We need to start thinking more deeply about how films are shot and edited, and what those choices do to make us think differently about women in cinema. [...]"

"When I was young, my mom raised me on classic films: Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, The Great Escape, Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I fondly remember watching Elizabeth Taylor on-screen. Hollywood royalty, we often think of her arresting beauty, numerous marriages, struggle with alcohol, philanthropy and perfume commercials. It’s easy to forget she was an amazing actor; a stellar artist who fluidly exuded strength, sensuality, vitality, passion and pain. [...]

So after years of my mother urging me, I finally watched Taylor’s legendary performance in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Based on Edward Albee’s Tony Award-winning play (it also won the Pulitzer although it wasn’t awarded it due to its vulgarity and sexual themes), the 1966 film follows Martha (Elizabeth Taylor) and George (Richard Burton), a middle-aged married couple. He’s an assistant professor at a New England college and she’s his wife who happens to be the college president’s daughter. Through their vitriolic and bitter alcohol-fueled feuding, they lash out at each other. When a young couple, new professor Nick (George Segal) and his wife Honey (Sandy Dennis), visit their house after a late-night party, Martha and George continue their battle of wits, interchangeably attacking their guests and using them as ammunition, to further lash out at one another. [...]"

See more at: http://www.womensviewsonnews.org/2013/11/looking-at-whos-afraid-of-virginia-woolf/#sthash.TOSnrA3s.dpuf

Lorsqu’elle la prend sous son aile, Simone de Beauvoir (Sandrine Kiberlain) lit chez Violette Leduc (Emmanuelle Devos) une plume rude tenue par un être fragile, voix de toutes les femmes, même si elle pense être la moins méritante. Surtout, Simone ne se presse pas de répondre à la question qui tend le film – « qui est Violette Leduc ? » – parce qu’une fois que ce sera fait, Violette pourrait cesser d’écrire. Éléments de réponse avec les deux actrices.

Violette, film de Martin Provost

avec Emmanuelle Devos, Sandrine Kiberlain…

Distribution : Diaphana

Durée : 2h19

Sortie le 6 novembre

Dans le cadre de son cycle de rencontres « vidéo et après », le Centre Pompidou propose une séance intitulée « BANDES DE FEMMES« , consacrée à la vidéo féministe des années 1970 et animée par Fabienne DUMONT.

Lundi 13 avril de 19h00 à 21h00, CINEMA 2, Centre Pompidou, Paris.

Artiste afghane née à Kaboul et résidant actuellement à Los Angeles, Lida Abdul est l'auteur d'une oeuvre singulière qui renvoie systématiquement au contexte de la guerre en Afghanistan. Ses oeuvres, performances, vidéos, photographies, donnent à voir une autre réalité du pays. Habituellement, ce qui nous parvient d'Afghanistan par l'intermédiaire des médias réside en des images de guerre et de soldats. Lida Abdul, au contraire, veut capter la vie d'un pays et d'un peuple qui portent les blessures des combats, des êtres humains qui font face à un événement terrible, dépourvus des instruments nécessaires pour le comprendre.

Lida Abdul

22 janvier - 30 mars 2014

Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, Paris

"Movies need to pass test that gauges the active presence of women on screen in bid to promote gender equality.

You expect movie ratings to tell you whether a film contains nudity, sex, profanity or violence. Now cinemas  in  Sweden are introducing a new rating to highlight gender bias, or rather the absence of it.

To get an A rating, a movie must pass the so-called Bechdel test, which means it must have at least two named female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man.

"The entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, all Star Wars movies, The Social Network, Pulp Fiction and all but one of the Harry Potter movies fail this test," said Ellen Tejle, the director of Bio Rio, an art-house cinema in Stockholm's trendy Södermalm district."

The Bechdel Test Movie List :

http://bechdeltest.com/

Après celui de la peintre Séraphine, Martin Provost retrace le parcours de Violette Leduc, femme des années 50 libérée par la grâce de l’écriture et par Simone de Beauvoir. La critique ciné du mardi, par Valérie Ganne.

"Award-winning producer and lifelong horror fan Mai Nakanishi will host a festival of short horror films by female directors from around the globe on Saturday and Sunday in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo.

“Scream Queen Film Festival Tokyo” is the official Japanese version of the Viscera Film Festival, an annual event held in Los Angeles since 2007 that features short horror films created by women.

Nakanishi, 32, collected 25 short horror movies from seven countries, including the United States, Britain, Canada and Japan, for the Tokyo festival. She did most of the work for her festival single-handedly—organizing, selecting films, negotiating with film directors and writing subtitles. “In the field of horror, women are a minority both as filmmakers and audience. So I wanted to support them,” Nakanishi said."

Scream Queen Filmfest Tokyo

Oct. 26 & 27, 2013

http://screamqueen2013.wix.com/screamqueenfftokyo