Ladies You May Have Missed in 2013

Image Credit: Sony Pictures Classic
Image Credit: Sony Pictures Classic

A surprisingly good year for female directors, 2013 featured well-received work on film and television by Jane Campion, Lake Bell, Jenji Cohan, and Maggie Carey. But if you don’t live in New York or Los Angeles, your independent theatre was probably busy showing Blue Jasmine for three months, so you may have missed the excellent crop of smaller films  women released this year. This is why Netflix exists.

1. Wadjda by Haifaa Al-Mansour

Although marketed as a piece of feel-good agitprop, Wadjda—the first film by a female Saudi director—is not a PSA. It’s a deceptively simple and rather lyrical take on one of film’s favorite symbols of hope: the bicycle.

2. Fill the Void by Rama Burshtein

Despite what the horrible English title would lead you to believe, this debut film from the ultra-Orthodox Israeli director Rama Burshtein isn’t about rock climbing or space exploration. It’s an intimate portrayal of women in ultra-Orthodox society that doesn’t attack or defend the community but simply tells a surprisingly erotic and complex story of female desire. Also, bonus points for having one of the best film posters of the year.

3. Stories We Tell by Sarah Polley

Exploring the history of her own parentage, Sarah Polley plays with the documentary form—mixing found footage with reenactments—as she questions our preconceived notions of narrative and memory. And it’s one of the sweeter depictions of a father-daughter relationship on film—genetics be damned.

4. The Selfish Giant by Clio Barnard

In the follow-up to her innovative documentary The Arbor, Clio Barnard once again reveals the harsher side of contemporary English life that somehow never makes it onto the pages of The Daily Mail. Although the film is based on an Oscar Wilde short story, don’t expect any Lady Bracknells to show up. This is tough viewing.

5. Yellow Fever by Ng’endo Mukki

The winner of the Chicago International Film Festival award for Best Animated Short Film, this debut by Kenyan director Ng’endo Mukki combines mutiple styles of animation to explore the politics of race and beauty. Good luck finding it online, but hopefully it will be streaming soon.

Weekly Girl Crushes

Photo Credit: Jacob Krupnik
Photo Credit: Jacob Krupnik

Girl Walk // All Day

When you are walking through Central Park and run into a roving pack of modern dancers, there is normally only one option: flight. But Girl Walk // All Day has made me rethink my blanket policy on impromptu modern dance performances. Starring Anne Marsen as “the Girl,” Girl Walk // All Day is a 75-minute film featuring Marsen and two male dancers who stomp, flail, and pirouette through all five boroughs (yes, even Staten Island). We first meet Marsen in a claustrophobic ballet studio. But the classical music soon gives way to a soundtrack by Girl Talk as Marsen ecstatically breaks out of the studio’s four walls. This rupture of the public/private divide generates much of the humor, tension, and joy in the film. Although a vague narrative of “the Girl,” “the Guy,” and “the Creep” runs through the film, the “story” of each scene emerges when Marsen invades the private space of others. A few of the bystanders clearly recognize that they are being filmed, but the vast majority respond with genuine confusion, laughter, awe, and, only rarely, complete disinterest. In one particularly fascinating section, Marsen carries countless shopping bags as she stumbles through a hoard of Occupy Wall Street protesters. Some begin clapping, assuming she’s a performance artist denouncing capitalism, while others actually mistake her for a clueless shopper. Neither of these interpretations is entirely correct, but this is unimportant. What matters is that the private thoughts of the bystanders affect the public performance. Whether she is being championed by tourists on the High Line or being chased out of Yankee Stadium by security guards, Marsen is challenging our urban propensity to turn on our iPods and shut out the city. While NYC is known for its stoic citizens who could see a man change his pants on a subway train without reacting, NYC is also famous for forcing people to live their private lives in public: we make out in front of Grant’s Tomb, have screaming fights inside a Duane Reade, and then cry on the Q train all the way home. Girl Walk // All Day gets at this essential contradiction of urban living, celebrating the chaos of the city and the quiet lives of its inhabitants. Continue reading “Weekly Girl Crushes”