Shorts: Women Looking At Men
Shorts: Women Looking At Men
Two female filmmakers, Alice Diop and Amanda van Hesteren, took a deep dive into the world as experienced by an insular group of men, homing in on how they deal with love and relationships. Screening of their two documentary shorts Towards Tenderness and I Want To Go Higher.
Programmers of the Future
These short films are part of the programme Shifting the Focus: Women Looking At Men, curated by Korée Wilrycx. In this selection, she examines the many different ways in which, in their work, female artists reflect on men and masculinity: from the sensual and erotic to the psychological and academic. Wilrycx picked films that liberate female artists from what is commonly considered to be the female gaze ('strong roles for women', the 'feminist film', a 'tender/gentle gaze') – proving that female artists are more than the female gaze.
First cohort
This summer, three Programmers of the Future present their first film programmes in Eye. They are part of the first cohort of a traineeship for future film programmers, set up by Eye in 2022.
Programme
Towards Tenderness (Alice Diop, FR 2016, 38')
Alice Diop’s César-winning documentary exposes how macho ideals have corroded the thoughts and souls of young men. The prison of toxic masculinity seems inescapable, but moments of tenderness point towards a hopeful future. Towards Tenderness is an intimate exploration of a male bastion in a French suburb. Diop follows a group of rootless men, for whom female bodies are nothing more than ghostly, virtual silhouettes.
I Want To Go Higher (Amanda van Hesteren, NL 2023, 24')
In this lively, raw, intimate documentary, four male models make a sincere attempt to get more in touch with themselves during a retreat in Thailand. Towards one another, the young men’s behaviour is over de top; they ride around naked on scooters, hire fancy villas and do photoshoots for Instagram. In private conversations with the filmmaker Amanda van Hesteren, we get a better picture of their individual insecurities, as the vulnerabilities of these young men are revealed in different ways. This film won the award for Best Dutch Short Film at the Go Short film festival.
Read Korée Wilrycx's essay on the Women Looking At Men: Beyond the Female Gaze programme in our online magazine.
This is part of
Details
Production year
2023
Length
97 min.
Event language
English
Country
NL
Part of
Programmers of the Future 2023
This summer, three Programmers of the Future present their first film programmes in Eye Filmmuseum. Programmers Janilda Bartolomeu, Korée Wilrycx and Kseniia Bespalova are among the very first to take part in Eye’s talent development programme for future film programmers, set up in 2022. The programme will feature cinema from the African diaspora that counters the notion of a singular reality, female artists on masculinity and alternative visual geographies of the former Soviet Union.
Eye Film Player
The Programmers of the Future each present an additional programme on Eye Film Player. Every week from 7 July, new titles will be available to watch at home. The films selected by Korée Wilrycx will be available from 21 July.
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