As much as we have confronted rape culture and the patriarchal control of female bodies, there is still an area that has too often remained untouchable in the conversation: the specific roles religious and cultural norms have played in the persecution, abuse and suppression of women’s sexuality. That is where director Barbara Miller squares her uncompromising new film, “#Female Pleasure.”
Miller somewhat wobblily opens the documentary with images of objectified women in recognizable male-designer commercials and ads, highlighting how mainstream culture has long normalized the problem. But then, she takes audiences across the world to illuminate the condemnation of female sexuality as the international pandemic that it is. This is where “#Female Pleasure” soars.
The filmmaker presents the stories of five different but equally courageous women in various countries: Deborah Feldman from Brooklyn, Vitika Yadav in India, Rokudenashiko in Japan, Leyla Hussein in the Somali Muslim diaspora, and Doris Wagner in Europe,...
Miller somewhat wobblily opens the documentary with images of objectified women in recognizable male-designer commercials and ads, highlighting how mainstream culture has long normalized the problem. But then, she takes audiences across the world to illuminate the condemnation of female sexuality as the international pandemic that it is. This is where “#Female Pleasure” soars.
The filmmaker presents the stories of five different but equally courageous women in various countries: Deborah Feldman from Brooklyn, Vitika Yadav in India, Rokudenashiko in Japan, Leyla Hussein in the Somali Muslim diaspora, and Doris Wagner in Europe,...
- 10/16/2019
- by Candice Frederick
- The Wrap
Recently, after six days of program, this year’s Dortmund|Cologne International Women's Film Festival came to a close in Cologne’s Odeon Cinema with a presentation ceremony totalling four awards and €16,000 worth of prize money. Spanish director Neus Ballús won the €10,000 debut feature film competition, in which eight debuts were to be seen. In her film La Plaga (The Plague), she portrays five fascinating characters on the outskirts of Barcelona against the backdrop of rural Catalonia. It's a scorching hot summer and a plague of insects has ruined the harvest. Ms Ballús meticulously stages the daily routines of a cast played by non-professional actors, creating in the process an impressive piece of fiction which ultimately tells us a lot about Spain and Europe. Neus Ballús was present in Cologne to receive the prize personally.
Withotu a doubt, La Plaga succeeded in convincing the jury which consisted of Kim Yutani, curator of the Sundance Film Festival, Pelin Esmer, the Turkish director (10 to 11, Watchtover ) and Julia Hummer, the German actress (Ghosts, The State I Am In). The jury said: “ The film takes a profound philosophical approach and explores the cycle of life of five individuals you’ll never forget. Confidently and sensitively, the film-maker (...) directs the team of amateur actors while presenting a screenplay that weaves together the stories of the protagonist with subtle realism.”
Sponsored by Choices magazine, the €1,000 Audience Award Prize 2014 was awarded to Farewell, Herr Schwarz directed by Yael Reuveny. The film portrays two families in Israel and Germany who knew nothing of each other for years. Eligible here were all movies shown at the festival with a length of more than 60 minutes.
The winners of the National Competition for (Next Generation) Women Directors of Photography were announced in the run-up to the festival. The awards of €2,500 each were conferred Sunday evening to DoP Christiane Schmidt for her documentary The Forest Is Like The Mountains and DoP Bine Jankowski for her movie Rebecca. This jury comprised DoPs Sophie Maintigneux, Anne Misselwitz and Julia Daschner.
Festival Director Silke J. Räbiger was more than satisfied with the response to the festival programme. This year, in addition to the unique spectrum of films on offer, it featured a wide range of panel discussions, workshops and workshop discussions – all in high demand by festivalgoers. “The close collaboration with partners such as medica mondiale, Ladoc and Turkish Film Festival Ruhr has again proved a wonderful success. Together, we were able to put on a very impressive programme and reach a broad and highly interested audience."
The Country Focus: Turkey section shed new light on the Turkish film industry in particular and the current political situation in general and thus inspired much discussion among the audiences. The festival also notched up a huge success with its offerings for Cologne and Dortmund schools. Around 1,500 students attended the performances.
The next main festival programme is to be held in Dortmund in April 2015.
Withotu a doubt, La Plaga succeeded in convincing the jury which consisted of Kim Yutani, curator of the Sundance Film Festival, Pelin Esmer, the Turkish director (10 to 11, Watchtover ) and Julia Hummer, the German actress (Ghosts, The State I Am In). The jury said: “ The film takes a profound philosophical approach and explores the cycle of life of five individuals you’ll never forget. Confidently and sensitively, the film-maker (...) directs the team of amateur actors while presenting a screenplay that weaves together the stories of the protagonist with subtle realism.”
Sponsored by Choices magazine, the €1,000 Audience Award Prize 2014 was awarded to Farewell, Herr Schwarz directed by Yael Reuveny. The film portrays two families in Israel and Germany who knew nothing of each other for years. Eligible here were all movies shown at the festival with a length of more than 60 minutes.
The winners of the National Competition for (Next Generation) Women Directors of Photography were announced in the run-up to the festival. The awards of €2,500 each were conferred Sunday evening to DoP Christiane Schmidt for her documentary The Forest Is Like The Mountains and DoP Bine Jankowski for her movie Rebecca. This jury comprised DoPs Sophie Maintigneux, Anne Misselwitz and Julia Daschner.
Festival Director Silke J. Räbiger was more than satisfied with the response to the festival programme. This year, in addition to the unique spectrum of films on offer, it featured a wide range of panel discussions, workshops and workshop discussions – all in high demand by festivalgoers. “The close collaboration with partners such as medica mondiale, Ladoc and Turkish Film Festival Ruhr has again proved a wonderful success. Together, we were able to put on a very impressive programme and reach a broad and highly interested audience."
The Country Focus: Turkey section shed new light on the Turkish film industry in particular and the current political situation in general and thus inspired much discussion among the audiences. The festival also notched up a huge success with its offerings for Cologne and Dortmund schools. Around 1,500 students attended the performances.
The next main festival programme is to be held in Dortmund in April 2015.
- 4/20/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Perspektiv Deutsches Kino
BERLIN -- Iranian director and football fan Ayat Najafi must have been hearing voices like Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams when he approached various bodies (including FIFA) to sponsor a friendly match between a local Berlin girls' soccer team and Iran's national women's team. But tackling all the political, religious and cultural defenses that stand in their way is harder than building a stadium.
Nevertheless, as Najafi says to his co-director David Assman, "In Iran, everything is impossible and everything is possible," the teams' refusal to give up pays off and the climactic match presents some exhilarating footage of sports fanaticism and girl power.
Do not expect the trenchant anti-authoritarian observations of Offside or any deep probing into the German-Iranian team members on their feelings of being Persepolis-like emigres visiting their parents' homeland. Politically inoffensive, bursting with teenage energy and softened by a lovely Middle Eastern-flavored score, the documentary will find a sympathetic audience among soccer lovers and young people. With the current popularity of films that mix women soccer fans with ethnicity such as Bend It Like Beckham and Offside, this feel-good exercise might be able to score a golden goal in the worldwide market.
Football Under Cover kicks off with the Iranian members of the Berlin-based BSV AL-Dersimpor girls' soccer team waxing lyrical about the sport. There are the token tomboys and Beckham groupies, but more fascinating is one member's mother, who played for Iran's national team in pre-Revolution days and now coaches her daughter.
Najafi and co-producer Marlene Assmann fly to Iran to meet their potential sponsor, Iranol Oil. The ensuing tug-of-war to make the match possible is confusing and not as eye-opening as the directors intended it to be. The film only heats up at the match itself. Female audiences will enjoy a sense of vindication to see men (even the president of the association) banished from the stadium and get a taste of what the heroines of Offside suffered. The responses of Iranian women spectators make an amusing spectacle and demonstrate the utter impotence of the moral watchdogs present.
FOOTBALL UNDER COVER
Flying Moon Filmproduktion
Credits:
Directors: Ayat Najafi, David Assmann
Producers: Patrick Merkle, Helge Albers, Roshanak Behesht Nedjad
Directors of photography: Anne Misselwitz, Niclas Reed Middleton
Music: Niko Schabel
Co-producers: Marlene Assmann, Corinna Assmann
Editor: Sylke Rohrlach
Running time -- 85 minutes
No MPAA rating...
BERLIN -- Iranian director and football fan Ayat Najafi must have been hearing voices like Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams when he approached various bodies (including FIFA) to sponsor a friendly match between a local Berlin girls' soccer team and Iran's national women's team. But tackling all the political, religious and cultural defenses that stand in their way is harder than building a stadium.
Nevertheless, as Najafi says to his co-director David Assman, "In Iran, everything is impossible and everything is possible," the teams' refusal to give up pays off and the climactic match presents some exhilarating footage of sports fanaticism and girl power.
Do not expect the trenchant anti-authoritarian observations of Offside or any deep probing into the German-Iranian team members on their feelings of being Persepolis-like emigres visiting their parents' homeland. Politically inoffensive, bursting with teenage energy and softened by a lovely Middle Eastern-flavored score, the documentary will find a sympathetic audience among soccer lovers and young people. With the current popularity of films that mix women soccer fans with ethnicity such as Bend It Like Beckham and Offside, this feel-good exercise might be able to score a golden goal in the worldwide market.
Football Under Cover kicks off with the Iranian members of the Berlin-based BSV AL-Dersimpor girls' soccer team waxing lyrical about the sport. There are the token tomboys and Beckham groupies, but more fascinating is one member's mother, who played for Iran's national team in pre-Revolution days and now coaches her daughter.
Najafi and co-producer Marlene Assmann fly to Iran to meet their potential sponsor, Iranol Oil. The ensuing tug-of-war to make the match possible is confusing and not as eye-opening as the directors intended it to be. The film only heats up at the match itself. Female audiences will enjoy a sense of vindication to see men (even the president of the association) banished from the stadium and get a taste of what the heroines of Offside suffered. The responses of Iranian women spectators make an amusing spectacle and demonstrate the utter impotence of the moral watchdogs present.
FOOTBALL UNDER COVER
Flying Moon Filmproduktion
Credits:
Directors: Ayat Najafi, David Assmann
Producers: Patrick Merkle, Helge Albers, Roshanak Behesht Nedjad
Directors of photography: Anne Misselwitz, Niclas Reed Middleton
Music: Niko Schabel
Co-producers: Marlene Assmann, Corinna Assmann
Editor: Sylke Rohrlach
Running time -- 85 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/13/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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