Part 2. Both Subrin and Syms create narrative works about how women are presented and documented through film and social media.

A Woman, a Part, dir. Elisabeth Subrin, USA 2017 (starts at 17 sec.)

‘I was thinking a lot about performance and what it requires within capitalism to be a person in an economy where you have to perform to survive… I don’t think one can be completely authentic and actually make a living.’

‘People don’t change in ninety minutes, I wanted the film to talk about how hard it is to change.’

The feature-length narrative debut of filmmaker and artist Elisabeth Subrin. The film is a critique of how women are portrayed in media, the ways in which personal relationships intertwine with and shape the creative process, and the difficulty of change – all set against a gentrifying New York City. 

Recorded 7 July 2017.

Incense, Sweaters & Ice, dir. Martine Syms, USA 2017 (starts at 13 min. 11 sec.)

‘Many women are required to perform emotional labour to succeed, or are expected to.’

Shot on location in Los Angeles, Chicago and Clarksdale, Mississippi, the new feature-length work by artist Martine Syms travels from the rural South to the Northeast, Midwest and West, following routes of the 20th century Great Migration of African-Americans. This multi-location narrative is never overtly region-specific, yet is psychogeography in origin. Similarly, ambiguous, the camera occupies multiple vantages in the film including WB, the interviewer and the omnipotent observer, serving to chart the ways we document ourselves and the lives of others.

Recorded 2 November 2017.

Credits

Editing: Millie-Beth Wright

Sound: Justin Tam

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.