Lately, I feel a weight on my shoulders when I attend a movie that is directed by a woman. I watch anxiously hoping to be inspired to
promote the film and filmmaker - knowing how rare it is for mainstream
films to be directed by a woman. (Less than 7% of studio productions this year
were directed by women.) The stakes are great.
One bad movie by a woman director reinforces the view that women are not
as good as men. One flop is proof that nobody wants to watch movies by women.
These myths persist no matter how many big hits are helmed by women. It is not
easy to change a patriarchal system that is so entrenched in our culture that
many don’t believe it exists. But no progress is ever made without a struggle. So
here we are.
Fortunately, “Suffragette” was developed by the female team
that created the acclaimed film, “Brick Lane,” including director Sarah Gavron,writer Abi Morgan, and producers Alison Owen and Faye Ward. I sat upright in my theater seat, poised
for a prim and proper BBC style biopic. But I was immediately thrust into the brutal
world of the suffragettes along with weary textile worker and mother, Maud (Carey
Mulligan). I was shocked by the
unflinching depiction of her dismal work conditions and the extreme use of
violence by the police to crush the women who protested.
 |
| Faye Ward (producer), Abi Morgan (Screen Writer)Alison Owen (producer) and Sarah Gavron (Director) looking at original police documents. |
This gritty enactment
was born out of thorough research on the first foot soldiers from the early
feminist movement (concentrating on 1912-13), when the women were forced to
pursue a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the increasingly violent state.
A fine piece of visual storytelling, “Suffragette” engaged
my heart as well as my mind, showing just why women’s suffrage is so important
to protect the basic human rights of women (and children) in a patriarchal
society. By law, women and children were
men’s property. So women were beaten,
imprisoned, lost their jobs and even their children for fighting for the right
to vote.
The theme is relevant today. In this time when women’s’
rights and health care are being threatened, it is vital for women to safeguard
their rights by voting. “Suffragette”
reminds us that those rights didn’t come easy. Men didn’t gift us with the right to vote. Real
women fought hard for over 70 years for the right to demand better working
conditions at the polls. I hope "Suffragette" inspires us to fight for fair working conditions for everyone.
 |
| Ada from Jane Campion's "The Piano" |
I haven’t felt so moved by a movie since Jane Campion’s “The Piano.” I remember wailing, not crying – wailing, when the pianist’s finger
was heartlessly hacked off by her possessive husband. That image resonated with my artist soul that
had been similarly amputated by our capitalistic society. Both of these films moved me from a place deep
within. Both of these films were created
by women. There is something that these
women filmmakers brought to these pictures - an understanding, a sensitivity that
comes from a place of true understanding that you can only get from
experiencing a similar struggle.
Movie blessings,
Jana Segal
www.reelinspiration.blogspot.com
2 comments:
And that is the issue at hand, a similar struggle. When someone isn't in your shoes they cannot see the struggle you are experiencing. To them what they see and hear is whining and playing victim. My argument is that if we were playing victim we would allow it to continue, not stand up to it to make it better, to demand change. When I tell someone my experience, as to show I have the shoes that walked it, doesn't mean I am crying. It means I stopped crying and said enough. I share my story to show them, the offender wearing blinders still, that I speak from a place of knowing and with evidence. Their denial and/or redirection of projection back to my angle of the table is demonstration that it is their issue, not mine, to wake up still - and in truth they are the one now whining, playing victim. It's once we get passed that level and they finally let their blinders down that we start to find common ground and resolution... And progression. I haven't seen this film yet. I cannot wait to see it!
OK. I am so frustrated with the Academy. I have seen the Best Picture nominees, and "Suffragette" was better than two of them. It is a gripping story (suspenseful to the end) the acting is great (Carey Mulligan was not nominated, but one-note Saoirse Ronan was!), the set design and costumes are spot on.
So why the snub? Could it because because the Academy is mostly white males over 60? Or worse, the movie has gotten some bad press for being "white washed." And the articles were written by women! Really, women! Can't we even stand up for THE ONE movie of the year that was for women's rights, made by a female team! Yes, this movie had a white cast, but that's because the women filmmakers did thorough research and found that there weren't black women in the British suffrage movement. They needed to stay very true to the facts, so people would buy the rest of the story.
Post a Comment