Not Like Us? Zine by Elle Haywood

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An Introduction Not Like Us? is a selection of films drawn from the vibrant cinematic representation of female misfits on screen, exploring questions around identity, conformity, and community. Curated and Programmed as part of the NFTS Film Studies, Programming and Curation MA, this season explores stories of determined, focused individuals who may feel they do not fit in, yet find alliances with others and gain insight from their altering views on the world. We don’t just experience their moments of strength, but also their periods of loneliness, and points of contemplation. From this, we begin to understand their complex relationships with society and the impact that they have on their friends and communities from a variety of backgrounds and cultures. The season will run from the 21st - 26th September 2021, with the feature films being screened at The Genesis Cinema in London, and additional content is being made available online. Content will have English subtitles where possible.

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Not Like Us? Short Docs: Community & Change Screening Online - Thursday 23rd September

A free online shorts programme showing three lively, and invigorating stories about affecting change and challenging the social order. JUCK (2018) Sweden | 18 mins | Directed by Olivia Kastebring, Julia Gumpert, and Ulrika Bandeira. A GREAT RIDE (2018) US | 33 mins | Directed by Deborah Craig, Veronica Duport Deliz. TO THE FRONT: SCENES FROM A WOMEN’S ROCK CAMP (2017) UK | 13 mins | Directed by Fran Broadhurst Video Essay In celebration of its 20th Anniversary this year, we have created a video essay on our website celebrating the magic of LE FABULEUX DESTIN D’AMÉLIE POULAIN aka, AMÉLIE. Critical Reviews On Pages 5-6, Katherine McLaughlin writes on VAGABOND, and you can find Keno Katsuda’s piece on KAMOME DINER on Pages 10-11. Interviews and Introductions We catch up with the WE ARE THE BEST! director Lukas Moodysson to talk about his process, writing truthful female characters, and the world of punk in Sweden. Read up on a snippet of the interview on Page 8-9. For the screening of VAGABOND, we invited writer & curator So Mayer to give an introduction to the film. On Page 7, So has allowed us to publish an exclusive segment of the talk.

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SEASON NOTES The word misfit originates from the 19th century term that referred to a garment that fitted badly. The question that emerges from this is whether the garment is discarded, because of it not being comfortable, or is it kept, for other reasons than fashion, for practicality, for sentimentality? When something isn’t quite a good fit, society can turn on it, become unwelcoming, or make a snap judegment, usually before considering the reasons why. Expectedly, the word has evolved to describe people and their behaviour that sets them apart from others, for not fitting in or conforming to expectations. The application of the word misfit to someone comes from the side of those considered ‘normal’ or fitting in, towards those opposite of this. It is a complex blend of internal and external factors that result in the term misfit being applied. In cinema, identifying as a misfit is most often explored through a male lens but the assignment of the term to women is more complex, and something that deeply interests me. Each character in the film is placed in a position of opposition that is intensified by being female. This sets them up as being outsiders from the environments they find themselves in, but instead of moulding into the shape of expectation, they adapt to continue on their own paths in life, regardless of the perceptions of others. Perhaps the reason for someone not fitting is because we are nervous of adjustment, of allowing something different into our lives, of making space. The vibrancy of these characters comes from how they find their own joys, are emboldened by their choices, shoulder opposition and find a way. Within these films, I hope to explore those who are positioned as different by others, by society, but offer so much to us by embracing themselves for who they are.

BY Elle Haywood Season CURATOR

VAGABOND FEATURE 5

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Agnès Varda was inspired to make Vagabond after a conversation she had with a policeman about a vagrant who had died of the cold. So struck by this story, Varda started to research the life of a drifter and travelled across France to meet with numerous people who lived on the road. She met Setina Arhab, who appears in the film, and informed the character of Mona (Sandrine Bonnaire) who we first meet dead in a ditch. The film then pieces together the events that led to Mona’s death through flashbacks and interviews. The marketing campaign for the film’s French release in 1985 focused on a poster that asked, “Would you Give this Girl a Lift?”, alongside a photo of a dirtied up Mona. Varda asks the viewer to bear witness to Mona’s journey - to question their own opinions and have empathy for the life of a female drifter. Varda moves her camera from right to left, against the grain, in twelve travelling shots to symbolise Mona’s rebellious attitude to society. The film never judges Mona and she is never portrayed as a victim, but as an outsider who has rejected society to live on her own terms. Mona rolls with the punches and loves the freedom the road offers, even if there are obvious dangers lurking…but such is life.

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The score, ironically titled La Vita, by Joanna Bruzdowicz, only plays during these travelling shots as Mona makes her doomed journey to an icy grave. As she roams freely from the open sea, after a refreshing and cleansing dip, she gets dirtier and smellier along the way, encountering kindness and cruelty from random strangers. Mona’s travels are littered with joyful giggles and terrifying confrontations - something Varda observes with keen intuition and sensitivity, striking hugely emotive beats sans dialogue. At one point Mona stops off with a kind Tunisian farmworker but just as she’s about to form any meaningful attachment she hits the road. Mona’s tears following the departure say more about her motivations and emotions than any words can. One scene in a train station shows Mona offending ‘polite society’ through her drunken, loud behaviour, a man commenting, “She scares me because she revolts me.” Mona experiences violence and harsh judgement and chooses to shun a society that not only shuns her for her grubby appearance, but ignores the reality and impact of violence.

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EXTRACT FROM SO MAYER’S INTRODUCTION TO VAGABOND Agnès Varda’s Vagabond (1985) has the French title Sans toit ni loi, which I like to translate as: without roof or rule; or outdoor outlaw. There’s different ways of reading how the protagonist Mona is not like us, which Varda shows by giving a dozen different characters the opportunity to tell us about their perceptions of Mona as she moves through Languedoc Roussillon and through their lives: the film is constructed through the lasting impressions she makes. Mona makes me think of a particular lone woman, the Greek mythic heroine Medusa, who could turn others to stone with a glance. Mona, whose name echoes mono, the Greek word for one, with a sense of alone, rarely speaks and barely meets the camera’s gaze, seems to gradually turn to stone. Her physicality, diction and emotional tones in the film contest feminine normativity through a barely contained anger – combining Varda’s lifelong rage at exclusion and exploitation with performer Sandrine Bonnaire’s closeness to and love for her younger sister Sabine, a talented musician with severe autism, whose striking presence – documented by Bonnaire in her first film Elle s’appelle Sabine – shines through Mona, a sisterly companion like the weathered stone statue whom Mona affords a rare, tender glance and touch. Varda, after all, made a film called ‘Les Dites Caryatides’ – What the Female Statues Said – the year before Vagabond. In Mona, the stone femme speaks, asking: are we ready to come undone?

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S A N K INTERVIEW O U S L S Y D O EXTRACT MO

“I’m really interested in what sort of traditions [one] work in, because I think you have to work with finding your way with traditions behind you. One of the traditions I feel really close to is the culture for children, specifically in TV and movies, where there is this strong tradition of making films that take children seriously and not just in a Disney way, but really take their hopes and dreams and innerfeelings seriously. I’m not shying away from darker things in children’s lives … but there are a lot of good things that have come out of Sweden like that. My first film, Fucking Åmål, is also part of that tradition, that’s also a film for children really and teenagers.”

“We Are The Best! and Container are my two favourites of the films I have made. They are the ones I am most proud of [...] from making something really extreme and extremely personal with Container, to making a simple and happy film. If I had to save only two of my films, it would be these ones”

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Being an outsider in the world doesn’t have to be interesting, it can also just be about feeling awkward.

“Being an outsider in the world doesn’t have to be interesting, it can also just be about feeling awkward. In quite small, simple situations like playing basketball, and feeling like you’re a bit of an alien and you don’t really know exactly why that is. But it feels like there is some sort of disconnection between myself and the rest of the world. I think all three of the characters in We Are The Best! have this feeling that they don’t really fit in. The film is sort of on some level about dealing with just being a human being in a world where things feel a bit strange.”

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BY KENO KAMOME DINER FEATURE KATSUDA In Naoko Ogigami’s film Kamome Diner, Satomi Kobayashi plays Sachie, a Japanese woman who has moved to Finland to start a diner. There, she befriends two other independent Japanese women named Midori (Hairi Katagiri) and Masako (Masako Motai). In one scene, Midori suggests that Sachie should start advertising the diner to attract more customers. The diner has been almost empty, save for the patronage of Tommi, a Helsinki local who Sachie insists on serving for free. However, Sachie refuses Midori. She states that her intentions for Kamome are to appeal to passersby, not homesick Japanese people stranded in Finland, success be damned. “If we keep working steadily, we will get customers,” asserts Sachie. “If not... then I’ll just have to close up shop. But it’s okay.” This conversation is perfectly illustrative of Midori, Sachie, and Masako’s desires. Though they each find their way to Finland independently, they are united through their shared determination to live as pleasurably as possible.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has been a time for many to reevaluate their priorities. Countless thinkpieces and articles have been published featuring dissatisfied employees quitting their jobs and attempting to answer the question of what do I actually want to be doing with my life? Though Japanese society has undergone immense shifts in the last century, the culture is still marked by its static nature--there remains a fundamental dissatisfaction with the status quo, familial units are tight, and the country is notoriously unwelcoming to outsiders. Japanese women face the regular existential pressures of the late capitalist world and routinely suffer due to the extreme sexism that permeates even the middle and upper classes of society. It is therefore perhaps unsurprising that the three women in Kamome Diner free themselves from their home country’s constraints by leaving on a whim--Midori arrives in Finland after randomly pointing at the country on a world map, and Masako comes after being inspired by seeing an air guitar competition on television. What the film further suggests is that there is an immense joy to be found in this simultaneous communion and retreat. In one scene, Masako wonders aloud why the Finns are so calm and laid back. After Tommi replies, “we have forests,” Masako immediately stands up and announces she’s off to the forest. Indeed, we see her standing amongst the trees a short while later. Her lack of hesitancy reminds of the film’s message; that time surrounded by found family and the natural world is unparalleled. Sign for All Community LTD provides accessibility and awareness for deaf families. Our post-screening panel discussion of Kamome Diner at The Genesis on Sunday 26th September at 3:00pm will be BSL Interpreted by Irina from Sign for All Community.

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