By Meral Jamal
From Oct. 16-20, the Womyn’s Centre at Carleton University in collaboration with the Carleton University Students’ Association hosted its first Fem Film Fest.
The daily lineup of movies was based on categories such as queer and trans women in film, women of colour in film, women in action and women in comedy. The movies consisted of classics and fan favourites such as Mean Girls and Clueless, but also more recent ones such as Hidden Figures, He Named Me Malala and Margarita with a Straw. Harar Hall, the organizer for the event, said that “Movies are a really great way of connecting people with ideas that they may have never encountered before in a very entertaining way. Beyond that, I think that it’s important to celebrate the talents of women and feminists as they break down barriers in representation and ideology.”
The four-day event also had a “Fem(me) Talk” in its schedule. It began with an introduction by two Carleton students – who identified themselves as Ellie and Danielle – and took place in the cozy purple office of the Womyn’s Centre. The talk took a New York Times article called “Look Who’s Still Talking the Most in Movies: White Men” as its starting point, which was based on research recently conducted by the University of Southern California. Analyzing the scripts of 1,000 popular films, this research found that 4900 out of 7000 characters were men, while only a little more than 2,000 characters were women. In addition, men were involved in over twice as many on-screen dialogues as women – 37,000 to 15,000.
Other topics highlighted in the Fem(me) Talk included the representation of people of colour in films and the lack of representation of people with disabilities. Why are Middle Eastern characters consistently typecast as terrorists or taxi drivers? Why are Asian characters always shopkeepers? Why are Black women depicted as “angry”? Why are Black men portrayed as thugs or thieves? And why are people with disabilities regularly victimized? Most importantly, why are the roles of different people with different stories still being written by cisgender, white men? And why is much of the film industry still owned by them?
The talk ended on a positive and hopeful note. Attendees were asked to share what their hopes are for the future of women in film. Reflecting the diverse audience, responses ranged from wanting to see more women cast as villains, more butch lesbians, and more women shown to be inherently strong and not just survivors and victims, to seeing people with disabilities as leading characters and not simply victims or confined to living in hospitals.
The Fem Film Fest made an explicit effort to make sure their own offerings were diverse and accessible. “We partnered with both the Gender and Sexuality Resource Centre, and the Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Hall to show the movies from queer and trans women and women of colour,” Hall explained. “But we’ve also made sure to use venues that are accessible and consistently have folks that are trained in peer support on hand.”
Hall believes that this kind of diversity represents a bright future for film. “In many ways representation is improving; more female directors are being recognized for their brilliance, there are more women being highlighted in comedy. Genres that have historically been terrible to women like horror have started putting [different] spins on the ideas of female fragility.”
Even the revelation of multiple sexual assault allegations against famed Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein represent a certain kind of progress – while also showing how far we have to go. Hall explained, “the reaction to Weinstein is a lot better than the reaction to Woody Allen, but it took years of film companies and others in the industry covering for Weinstein before his crimes came to light. We can’t allow perpetrators to continue to have influence and receive accolades at the expense of survivors’ health, safety and well-being. The movies that these men make should not be more important than the lives they have harmed.”
The four days of fem film ended on a positive note, popcorn, and two hours of Mean Girls.
This article first appeared in the Leveller Vol. 10, No. 2 (Oct/Nov 2017).
