A discussion on ‘Forms of ‘Feminist Film: Fiction, Non-fiction, Experimental’ chaired by Professor Maria Pramaggiore (Head of Media Studies, Maynooth University). We are delighted to welcome a diverse panel of active filmmakers and academics: Dr. Maeve Connolly (Lecturer in Film and Animation, IADT), Lelia Doolan (director of Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey), Jesse Jones (filmmaker and visual artist), and Tess Motherway (documentary filmmaker and festival director at Dublin Doc Fest). 

Chaired by Professor Maria Pramaggiore (Head of Media Studies, Maynooth University).

Panel sponsored by Maynooth University, Department of Media Studies

A contemporary Irish classic about an indomitable woman: Lelia Doolan’s documentary Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey tells the story of Northern Irish socialist and political activist, Bernadette Devlin, who — at just twenty-one years old — became the youngest MP ever elected (in 1969). Doolan is one of Ireland’s most celebrated directors and the film perfectly reflects women’s abilities and achievements both behind and in front of the camera.

(+ short Heroinat / Heroines, Ana Čigon, 2015)

Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams’s remarkable documentary about the complexities of gender and sexuality in 1990s Japan. Shinjuku Boys focuses on a trio of onnabes; a term used to describe Japanese women who choose to live as men. The film combines candid interviews about sex and lesbianism with stirring sequences from the onnabes workplace: Tokyo’s New Marilyn Club, a space populated mostly by heterosexual women disenchanted with ‘real’ men.

(+ short Milk, Vuokko Kunttu, 2014)

Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren, 1943)

The Delian Mode (Kara Blake, 2009)

The Body Beautiful (Ngozi Onwurah, 1990)

As our Short Film Triple Bill reflects, feminist films (like women themselves) come in all shapes and sizes. The selection begins with Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon, an experimental classic made in 1943 which helped to establish avant-garde cinema in the U.S. This will be followed by Kara Blake’s The Delian Mode, a poetic ode to the electronic composer, Delia Derbyshire. While best-known for creating the theme music for Doctor Who, the short reveals how Derbyshire’s creative and technical skills allowed her to break into the male-dominated audio world of the 1960s. Last but not least is Ngozi Onwurah’s The Body Beautiful. This autobiographical short focuses on the changing bodies and bonds between a British mother dealing with breast cancer, and her daughter, a half-Nigerian model. Featuring Onwurah’s own mother, The Body Beautiful traces the female body in its various vulnerable, eroticised, and commodified forms.

Whip It, the heart-warming story of a young woman who refuses to conform to the world of American beauty pageants, and finds her fab femmo self by joining a radical roller-derby team. Starring Ellen Page, the film is Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut and, if ever there was a feel-good feminist film with a great message — one that people of all kinds and ages can enjoy — then this is it. As well as suiting older kids, Whip It is the perfect cure for that post-Halloween hang-over, and the kind of film that mams and dads will enjoy as much as their teens.

(+ short Queen of the Plough, Cara Holmes, 2014)

With a pre-recorded message by Director Mary Dore.

SHE'S BEAUTIFUL WHEN SHE'S ANGRY resurrects the buried history of the outrageous, often brilliant women who founded the modern women's movement from 1966 to 1971. SHE'S BEAUTIFUL takes us from the founding of NOW, when ladies wore hats and gloves, to the emergence of more radical factions of women's liberation; from intellectuals like Kate Millett to the street theatrics of WITCH (Women's International Conspiracy from Hell!)

(+ short There and Back, Trish Kelly, 2014)

‘Women in Horror’ by Dr. Paula Quigley (Professor of Film Studies at Trinity College Dublin).

The Babadook came out of nowhere and scared audiences across the globe. Written and directed by Aussie Jennifer Kent, and based on her short film Monster.

(+short The Drive, Helen Flanagan, 2014)

With Dr. Jennifer O’Meara (Maynooth University)

Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer (Corinne Marchand) set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman's life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand.

Screening sponsored by DCU, School of Communications

(+short Rachel Coming Home, Sophia Tamburrini, 2015)