Hey, I don’t read this thread much, but it just dawned on me that all the films in the MUBI cup are directed by men. Is that a rule? So far we did have Pipilotti Rist, but as I recall it was 12 minutes long and she was crushed. Was that a statement that goes along with the gender bias? Can Amazonia nominate a single-breasted woman film director? I don’t mean Affirmative Action or anything, just someone representative of 50% of the world’s population, or 3.2 Billion people. Perhaps it’s too late, huh? I just looked, and I notice that there are a few women coming up. Three, plus Ms Rist makes 4? Out of 74 films? 2012? Maybe I’m wrong, I confuse foreign language gender names. Maybe it’s old news and everyone’s tired of talking about it. How about a Binka Zhelyazkova festival? I just read that the Cannes line-up is pretty thin on women this year as well. Are women moving back to housemaking and stationwagons? Typing pools? Barefoot and pregnant? Better watch it or the ghost of Helen Reddy will sing us all to death. Can’t guys nominate women? Can’t women nominate women? Are there no good films by women in the whole world? Is there a misogynist mafia at large. Are women directors so rare that even MUBI super-celluloid-detectives are unable to find any? Guess I poked a pin in a balloon, but what are the demographics of we mubites: tetesterone swilling troglodytes? Botoxed trophy wives with Zach Efron fixations? Don’t want to piss off the clerics? Oh well, just wondering.
a women’s cup would be interesting. i think female directors are still pretty vastly outnumbered in the world at large? i blame the misogynist mafia
Choose films by merit and not by sex, unless you want to start a reservation policy.
there was this poll a while back. had i really not seen maren ade’s everyone else nine months ago? there are some great films on those lists, but to be honest, not enough for a cup. although france v germany would be amazing.
I was interested in a World Cup to get a more evenly spread out selection of cultural perspectives. It would be nice to spread things out more evenly on the gender perspective too. A film was just announced titled “A Woman’s Case” but that was directed by a man too.
Oh, I believe that very deserving movies are out there, perhaps less so in the black and white 50’s and 60’s, but the hard-to-find gems are what film detectives most-often drool after. The countries we’ve already voted upon in the Cup provided opportunities to chose meritorious films by women. If we’re unbiased, we’d include more women without thinking about it one way or the other, since we don’t include many, I’ll believe we’re passively conservative in our judgement. Curiously, Bela Tarr’s films since and including Wreckmeister Harmonies were co-directed by Ágnes Hranitzky, yet we don’t talk about seeing the new Hranitzky film. She was also his editor and probably has had considerable influence with Bela Tarr’s stylization during much of his earlier career as well. Would we even consider her in a women’s list of directors, or is there an underlining belief that the man is the actual director and by his largesse has included her in the credits above her station? Let’s ask Margarette von Trotta.
I feel odd even lifting this quasi-feminist banner, but as I mentioned it is 2012. Time to get crackin’. Also, merit is totally subjective in most of the arts, and I don’t necessarily mean “women’s movies,” or “feminist tracts,” though I wouldn’t exclude them, but we’ve all seen great movies by women, where the fuck are they? And let’s not kid ourselves that all the films in this Cup are filled with laudatory merit, some suck and we’re all too polite to say so. This isn’t meant to be a rabid complaint on my part, I’m amazed at the Cup’s high caliber of offerings, it’s just something I noticed.
Yes, twodeadmagpies, the poll you linked has some very cool lists, often Anglo-Euro, but the world is changing and people are unearthing regional women forerunners as well. Bezruc had a very insightful list citing from a group of women I rarely see mentioned or viewable (sadly). Iran has been a well-spring certainly, Latin America has woken up. Small pockets everywhere. Until more good films by women are visible, people like Katherine Bigelow will be thought of as a paradigm for an entire gender’s sensibilities and abilities. Talk about a crime.
Good post Brotherdeacon. I agree it’s time to get crackin’ although I’m a bit of a loss as to how to specifically proceed. Do you think for our own community here that a woman director’s cup is in line?
I might be totally wrong and too far removed from the average casual movie goer, but I would hope that most people wouldn’t see Kartherine Bigelow as a paradigm of an entire gender’s sensibilities and abilities. However what I do think might actully be worse. I think many people might see the sensibilities of most women filmmakers as something niche instead of something more universally appealing and profitable. The only Bigelow movie I’ve seen is Point Break which strangely seems to actually reflect some of the most stereotypical male perspectives often seen in Hollywood. So apparently the only way a woman director can get mass recognition in this country is if she become more manly than the men. :P
“So apparently the only way a woman director can get mass recognition in this country is if she become more manly than the men.” --
Unfortunately, this seems to be the case, at least for K.B. Others are used often as Hollywood fodder to direct mid-range romance/comedies etc. But film schools, independent networks, etc. are showing their worth. It’s probably a chapter in a much larger book for women in the twentieth first century. I know a women’s cup would be revelatory, but is the interest really there? The movies are. I’m a bit biased against Ms Bigelow’s work.
I think and hope interest would be there for a women’s cup. From experience I would expect there to be some complaints though. Any time a cup restricts to exclude certain films to focus on others then people will say it inherently suggests the films focused on would not be able to otherwise compete against those excluded. In some cases I think this has been a valid concern and observation. But like you said, if your perception is that certain movies are getting ignored, then focusing on those specifically can be beneficial if the result is that people discover their equal worth to those films excluded.
it would be nice for a start if we got some more female voices on the viewing side of the cup. (if only in case another fucking verhoeven film raises its ugly head for the netherlands) i think there’s only me, cat, ruby, meg and rapciune if she hasn’t abandoned it. when we figure out why there isn’t equal participation on here, then let’s have a women’s cup.
Magpies, actually I’d say the list of you, ruby, meg, and cat are actualy the most regular participators right now! Lily was for a while there too.
does that mean our votes get double points?
=D ^
i think we all should get double points for this seven hour marathon film. gonna try to make a big dent in it today. i’m pretty well hooked after the first 3 hours so there’s no turning back now!
i’m pretty well hooked after the first 3 hours
in a flurry of girly joy: yay!
Your votes get double points but your points are worth half as much. ;)
thanks for alerting me to that 7 hour beast ruby I forgot all about it, itching to get to it now …and I just had a great new furniture arrangement idea !! but I have to go to work, can you imagine my anguish as its a lovely rainy day
i feel awful having missed a couple of matches already, even though i swore to myself i wouldn’t!! (why does work always get in the way!) but i’m looking forward the the lav diaz film
I’ve been looking ahead and trying just about anything currently streaming that I haven’t seen (which is almost every film in this Cup). I think I will be cherry-picking this event from now on. I’ve tried several of the film ‘curiosities’ from those countries not known for their film output, but many seem more like exotic ‘anthropological’ discoveries, or curios than truly undiscovered masterpieces. The law of diminishing returns (for me, anyway) quickly set in. So, I’ll probably just skip these matches for time’s sake. Of course, some good films in the mix, but so far, pickin’s are slim.
I can’t think that way yet Oxy (yet), because I know there’s a 7 hour gorilla out there somewhere that I’ll be tempted to step around. I haven’t looked at the future matches much. Personally, I didn’t know some of the countries even existed let alone that they’ve produced good films, but it’s all rather unprecedented to me. I haven’t been in earlier Cups and though the temptation to cherry pick is ripe, I’d hate to miss out on the chance to brag to my therapist that I saw an amazing epic from an atoll in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) made by two snorkelers and a Black-bordered Emo Skink.
I’d hate to miss out on the chance to brag to my therapist that I saw an amazing epic from an atoll in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) made by two snorkelers and a Black-bordered Emo Skink.
Haha – BrotherDeacon! Yeah, there’s always that. Can I then recommend (strictly for the purposes of impressing your therapist) the films from Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka?
Thanks OXY, hopefully I’ll watch them both. My therapist will be so impressed she won’t be able to look me in the eye, such a coup.
limite just cracked my head open. i don’t think i’ve ever seen such a furious, heartbreaking elegy to the dying and deserted, to the greatest limit: silence. form and function forever changed by the talkies…..sigh….
the other half of that match is a pretty perfect use of the medium to lament too.
yay! ^ looking forward to it xD
ruby stevens
bit jammed up at the moment but i will make a start on the neverending diaz film in hopes of participating more!