No Mercy: Female Gaze and the Film Industry

“The truth is, women make the harsher films,” iconic director Kira Muratova once told young director Isa Willinger. In the documentary No Mercy, Willinger meets some of the most prominent female directors of our time and discovers how women and non-binary people portray gender and power, violence and desire. Through an accompanying discussion with female film workers, film scholars and film critics present, we will consider the so-called ‘female gaze’ in a world shaped by patriarchal and colonial narratives. How much does perspective change depending on whether a woman is in front of or behind the camera? How much does film industry perpetuate oppressive patterns of behaviour towards women through discriminatory employment practices and traditional separation of powers? Is inequality in gender relations ingrained into the very structure of film language and how to bring about changes on and off the screen?

Saturday, 25 April, 15.30 (Dokukino KIC, Preradovićeva 5)