Filmar o desejo

What ideas do women film directors have about women’s love, desire and sexuality and how do they express these matters on the screen? How different would their films be to the existing films which put women’s bodies on display to be consumed? A director, Marie Mandy, asks these questions through images of women’s bodies on which words are written. The leading women directors working in the world today, such as Jane Campion, Sally Potter, Agnès Varda, Catherine Breillat, Doris Dörrie, Moufida Tlatli and Deepa Mehta, discuss the difference. Taking their works as an example, as an embodiment of women’s perspective, they argue the possibility of a feminist film language and an expression of women’s desire through new images. Their dialogues about ways to express sexuality and a new sexual relationship are honest, bold and often humorous. Female bodies in their films are not the object but the subject of desire. Showing female desire is often prohibited and films are frequently censored out of a fear of women’s spontaneous desire, Filming Desire presents the new women’s vision by bringing back these taboo images. (Nam In-young)

“In this bold documentary Marie Mandy asks the question: how do women directors film love, desire, and, especially, sexuality? In rare interviews with many of the leading women directors working in the world today – including Sally Potter, Agnès Varda, Catherine Breillat, Doris Dörrie, Deepa Mehta, Moufida Tlatli, Safi Faye, and Jane Campion – FILMING DESIRE: A JOURNEY THROUGH WOMEN'S CINEMA directly engages the sexual politics of cinematographic choice.

Powerfully illustrated with film clips from their own work, the directors discuss the reality of an explicit women’s point of view, the possibility of a women’s cinematic language, and the desire in their films to ‘fantasize and dream a new image of themselves’. While discussing how their depictions of sexuality and relationships are correctives, they also reflect on the sexual differences in selection of image, shot, and story. The film also provides a virtual anthology of the debates about the body, sexuality, power, and passion one sees in contemporary feminist and film theory: the body in representation and image; as a subject of censorship; as the vehicle of desire and love; as the contested ground of cinematic production; and as part of women’s identity and voice.

Explicit, funny and beautifully edited, FILMING DESIRE weaves an intriguing essay that is international in scope and reflective of the great diversity of women filmmakers. Essential viewing for classes in women’s studies, film studies, sexuality, body image, and feminist theory.” – Joseph Boles, Visiting Scholar, Center for Visual Culture, Bryn Mawr