Nina Menkes directed Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power, a significant theoretical documentary about the dimensions and effects of “the female gaze.”
Grade: B+
The vet writer-director, whose exemplary indie work goes back to the 1980s, developed her 2017 essay and PowerPoint presentation into a film, examining the biased ways in which women are represented onscreen versus men.”
Using clips from hundreds of movies (including her own fictional films), Menkes explores the sexual politics of cinematic shot design.
she also includes interviews with women, nonbinary artists, film theorists, and scholars (Joey Soloway, Julie Dash, Catherine Hardwicke, Eliza Hittman and Laura Mulvey), who discuss “the exploitative effects of the male gaze.
Nina argues that shot design is gendered, via crucial decisions about POV/Subject/Object – Male object, female subject; Framing – The way shots are composed, including fragmentation of female body parts; Camera Movement – Body pans + tilts; slow motion used differently for male and female actors; Lighting – 3D (male) vs. 2D/fantasy lighting (female); and Narrative Position – Camera techniques 1-4 often undermine the female characters’ narrative position, even when they are a protagonist in the narrative.
She points out the many ways male-dominated image-making has been internalized by men and women alike.
While the film is defined by focused rigor, it requires prior basic knowledge and concepts of film language, thus it is most suitable for showings in film schools and festivals.
Critical Status:
The docu premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Fest and then played at the 2022 Berlin Film Fest.
Kino Lorber has acquired rights for distribution in North America.
