Reel Women: Sci Fi Special

REEL WOMEN FANZINE JAN 2017

SCIENCE

FICTION

SCREENINGS

#takeonerecommends @CamPicturehouse

FURTHER BEYOND

In their debut documentary, Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor (aka Desperate Optimists) take as their point of departure the compelling 18th-century figure Ambrose O’Higgins – father of Bernardo O’Higgins, the first leader of Independent Chile – and attempt to retrace his remarkable journey from Ireland to Chile.

Having long dreamt of making a biopic of O’Higgins, the filmmakers attempt in this wayward and wry documentary to realise their dream through a personal voyage into the idea of the cinematic location. However, as they speculate on the idea of place and what O’Higgins embodies, they continually get sidetracked by a competing story of immigration and displacement. Gradually, and not without humour, these intertwining narratives uncover ideas about the transformative powers of travelling as looked at through the particular prism of the Irish experience.

Made with the support of the Arts Council Of Ireland’s Reel Art scheme. This influential programme is designed to provide film artists with a unique opportunity to make highly creative, imaginative and experimental documentation.

You can meet the director of FURTHER BEYOND - as well as members of the Reel Women team - after the screening at the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse on Tuesday 7th Feb @ 6:15pm.

There’s also a screening on Sunday 5th Feb @ 6;15pm.

truth is stranger than science fiction

Daisy-May Hudson spoke to us about her feature HALF WAY, which chronicles her family’s experience of homelessness.

It was extremely strange and alien. I wasn’t aware of the issue of families becoming homeless. You associate it with rough sleeping and things like that, so the fact that we even were being made homeless I didn’t really understand. And it was really devastating because I could see already, before I’d even moved into the hostel, the stress that I was causing my mum. She dealt with a lot of guilt and anxiety. You believe it’s your job to put a roof over your child’s head, and when that ability was taken away through no fault of her own, that really affected her. I’m happy if my family are happy, and I noticed very quickly that they were unhappy in that situation, and that’s when it started to affect me.

I think there is a truth and a rawness and emotional honesty that perhaps wouldn’t have happened for an outside filmmaker, because me and my mum and sister are very close. I used to hold the camera quite low down so it would be like they were talking to me and not a camera. That genuineness makes them so likeable, it makes the audience feel like a part of that relationship, I think. The world that I wanted to create was – when I was in the hostel, what stuck out to me, what interlinked with my mental health, what did I want to run away from? All those things were where I chose to point the camera.

The thing for me was a sense of humour that I really wanted to get across. You needed the humour in order for it not to feel like victimisation, or wallowing in your own life. That balance was very important. With that much footage, I was able to choose what to leave in.

I felt like I had to be honest with the audience and leave some of the harder moments in – because it was hard at some points. It did shift the family dynamics, and that’s a reality that people need to see. I want this film to be used as a tool for social change, so people need to see the harsh realities of what it’s like. But there were moments that I chose not to put in as well.

I could have told a hundred different versions but there was only one true version.

Being in that hostel is like being in a limbo where you don’t really have an end goal. You don’t know how long you’re gonna be in there, there’s not a lot of information that you get. So when the court date happened it offered us a time frame, allowed us to jump through that hoop and then we knew where to go. Those moments are really important when you’ve been living without anything for so long. It’s really strange to explain.

After the theatrical release I want to get my teeth stuck into local policy, the use of language – specifically in housing for this film, but where I want to take my authorial voice is, there’s a lot of battles to be had in the UK regarding bureaucracy, representation of the working class, women… there’s so much I want to focus on and I feel I have a strong voice.

April McIntyre spoke to Amanda Mesaikos and Susanne Aichele of Random Cat about their short film CALEB which screens tonight.

April: The film seems to bring up interesting issues regarding motherhood. Sonia is averse to keeping both of the children whereas John seems keen. I think it’s still hard for society to view women as being un-maternal/not wanting more children etc.

Were you trying to challenge this view?

Susanne: Yes, that was part of it. It was interesting hearing people’s feedback when first reading the script. Quite a few people commented on how they thought Sonia was an unsympathetic character or ‘unlikeable.’ We never felt this way about her. She works for a government agency involved in bioengineering and fully understands the consequences of what will happen to their entire family if they are found out. She’s just trying to protect her family so in essence she is still being maternal, perhaps just not in the way society is traditionally used to. We do feel it’s important to challenge the way we view motherhood and fatherhood but also how, on an individual level, be it for men or women, parenthood will challenge your views and decisions.

April: I love the subtle sense of future in CALEB. What made you decide to hold back on going too far with the futuristic element?

Amanda: Love that you picked up on this! This was super important for us in developing our production design. Whilst the film is set in the future we wanted our film to still feel grounded in a world that is recognizable to us. We designed a few key pieces of technology which would hint at the future but not make it the star of the show.

Susanne: Sci-fi as a genre has become much more psychology based and relatable to everyday experience as it’s no longer exploring the probability of technological advances but the impact on the self and society.

April: I also got the sense that the film was highlighting issues around genetic engineering and designer babies, was this intentional?

Susanne: The connection between genetic engineering and designer babies was mostly unintentional. Our main focus was to explore what makes us human. If these two boys had the exact same memories and experiences what makes one less human than the other? What makes one less the family’s son than the other? Also once the boys stepped out of the 3D printer they start to become different people as they are having different experiences of the world.

Amanda: The greatest impact of films is what every viewer takes away from it, the variety of interpretations that start a conversation.

THE CATS ARE ON THEIR OWN NOW

is an animated short by Linnea Sterte set in the year ‘20XX AD’. The world has become post-apocalypse junkyard wasteland devoid of human life where only cats remain. An ominous musical score accompanies the story following a few cats in their new habitat, a contrast to the gentle and calm depictions of the felines who have seemingly adopted typically human tendencies. Whilst the film barely surpasses the two minute mark in length, it manages to capture feelings of nostalgia, sentimentality, and an underlying sense of uncertainty for the - Lizzie Scourfield future of our earth.

by Wanuri Kahiu is set in an East African community 35 years after a fictional PUMZI but all-too realistic sounding World War III, nicknamed the ‘Water War’. The community is an entirely enclosed and indoor space which boasts 0% pollution and self-sustainability. What may first appear to be a green technological haven is soon revealed to exist in a stark and depressing state of affairs – this is a world in which water is scarce and even sweat and urine have become valuable hydration resources.

The film follows the actions of a young woman in the community as she goes about her daily tasks in this world. Whilst working in a laboratory she receives an unexpected and mysterious soil sample, which reveals an unnerving insight into how the community is controlled and raises endless questions about how this world came to be. What follows is a film which is engaging and tense and with a quickly developed but well-executed narrative which draws in the viewer.

The consequences of our heroine’s actions are somehow both hopeful and hopeless, which echoes a major theme of the story: the notion of hope in a world seemingly void of it. The film raises issues of environmental concerns, the role of human activity and how we deal with our actions. It manages to brilliantly convey a sense of isolation in this new world – a world where human life is governed by technology and where the memory of nature lingers with an uneasy - Lizzie Scourfield absence.

Emma Wilkinson reviews

Inbal Breda’s animated short, THE FLIGHT, captures a female friendship as the pair travel together through a new adventure, and then into uncertainty. Though there is no dialogue between the two of them, this stylised film manages to clearly establish their relationship and bring the audience with them through this turbulence in their friendship.

In lieu of dialogue, THE FLIGHT makes use of heightened human-esque expression, and careful use of music. The combination of these features means that the viewer is guided clearly through the pair’s journey. However, it does also mean that there are moments which lack a certain subtlety, but within the overall context of the film’s very charming narrative, this doesn’t impact on the characters’ ability to be both clear and sympathetic.

The dreamy landscapes created by Breda are reminiscent of Miyazaki, as is the childlike sensations of wonder and adventure experienced by the pair. The combination of fantastical surroundings and raw human expression means that the audience is enabled to embrace this unfamiliar world being presented to them, since they are being drawn into it gradually and thoughtfully through the characters’ own experiences. As such, despite being far removed from naturalistic drama, THE FLIGHT is not a film which is emotionally distant, cold or difficult to connect with — but rather, it succeeds in being both magical and relatable at the same time.

While THE FLIGHT could be at times more nuanced, and its narrative could perhaps have greater shaping to it, Breda has created a very likeable film. Its gorgeous sky-based cities and wideeyed lead pair work together to present a world which seems full of possibility and adventure.

The animation skills are strong throughout, allowing the world of the film to be both distinctive and hugely nostalgic for past animation greats.

WORDS! WORDS! WORDS!

‘Cast realism aside. Its consequences for women are deadly.’

Sue-Ellen Case, ‘Toward a Butch-Femme Aesthetic’ Decoding Gender’s greatest strength is its methodology.

Brian Attebery uses cultural theory to play the kind of “what if” game so near and dear to the collective heart of the SF community. This framing technique is more than just a useful device for decoding gender and genre; it’s also quite fun. The “what if” game also enables Attebery to tell dynamic SF histories that complicate their smooth Lisa Yaszek, Extrapolation Annette Kuhn’s “Alien Zone” aims to bring science fiction cinema fully into the ambit of cultural theory in general and of film theory in particular. The essays in this book - some newly written, others gathered from scattered sources - look at the ways in which contemporary science fiction films draw on, rework, and transform established themes and conventions of the genre: the mise-en-scene of future worlds; the myth of masculine mastery of nature; power and authority and their relation to technology.

These books are recommended by Dr Sarah Dillon, whose course “Feminist Science Fiction Film” is structured via a selection of feminist SF sub-genres, with films spanning historical periods and national cinemas: from comedy to space opera.

#takeonerecommends: female-made sci-fi

SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD (Lorene Scafaria): As an asteroid nears Earth, a woman joins her neighbour on a road trip to find his old flame. JUPITER ASCENDING (Wachowskis): A young woman discovers her destiny as an heiress of intergalactic nobility and must fight to protect the Earth. INTO THE FOREST (Patricia Rozema): After a massive power outage, two sisters learn to survive on their own in their woodland home.

H. (Rania Attieh): Two women descend into madness after an alleged meteor strike sets off a series of strange events in their town. N.Y. FISSURES (Alante Kavaite): Sound engineer Charlotte returns from Paris to her hometown in the countryside after the death of her mother. LOW-FLYING AIRCRAFT (Solveig Nordlund): Based on a the short story “Low Flying Aircraft” by J.G. Ballard and set in a near future where humans are dying breed. Judite and André flee to a semi-abandoned apartment complex to protect their mutant child from certain death.