Women’s Cinema as Counterphobic Cinema: Doris Wishman as the Last Auteur

Existing accounts of Myanmar’s film industry available to English speakers are more than twenty years out of date. Opening with a brief overview of cinema in Myanmar since 2000, this article is based on a recent visit to the Myanmar Motion Picture Development Department and the Yangon Film School, on conversations with staff, students and alumnae of these institutions and of the National University of Arts and Culture, and with local independent filmmakers. The purpose of my visit was to begin the groundwork needed to answer basic questions: Who are the women making films in Myanmar today? Where are they trained? What are the conditions in which they work? What kind of films they make? How do they fund production? How do their films circulate? And finally: Is there a women’s cinema in Myanmar? What follows thus outlines the context in which women in Myanmar make films today and introduces the work of a small number of them. I conclude with reflections on three short films: A Million Threads (2006, by Thu Thu Shein), Now I am 13 (2013, by Shin Daewe), and Seeds of Sadness (2018, by Thae Zar Chi Khaing), two of which can be found online (at http://yangonfilmschool.org/___-free-yfs-film / and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX0LUZQcMCQ ).

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Queer representation in Arab and Middle Eastern Films

Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media - Researching Creative Practice: Terminology, Policy, Models ◽

10.33178/alpha.20.06 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 71-86

Author(s):

Maria Abdel Karim

Keyword(s):

Middle East ◽

Middle Eastern ◽

Narrative Structure ◽

The State ◽

Audience Reception ◽

Queer Identity ◽

Cultural Contexts ◽

Mise En Scene ◽

Queer Representation ◽

Women's Cinema

Queer representations have been present since the 1930s in Arab and Middle Eastern cinema, albeit always in coded forms. However, the idea of homosexuality or queerness in the Middle East is still not tolerated due to religious, political, social and cultural reasons. Middle Eastern filmmakers who represent homosexual relations in their films could face consequences ranging from censorship to punishment by the State or religious extremists. This article explores the representation of lesbians in three transnational Middle Eastern women’s films: Caramel (Sukkar banat, 2007) by Nadine Labaki, set in Lebanon, Circumstance (2011) by Maryam Keshavarz, set in Iran, and In Between (Bar Bahar, 2016) by Maysaloun Hamoud, set in Israel/Palestine. It analyses the position the female lesbian protagonists occupy in the narrative structure and their treatment within the cinematic discourse. The article will examine mise-en-scène elements and compare each director’s stylistic and directorial approach in representing homosexuality within different social and cultural contexts. It will also prompt discussions related to queer identity, queer feminism, women’s cinema, audience reception and spectatorship within the Middle East.

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Does the fact that you are a woman affect your perceptions of issues you are dealing with in film or video? 2. Is your work in film or video committed to women's issues? 3. Do you believe in the existence of a women's cinema that has distinguished characteristics?

Al-Raida Journal ◽

10.32380/alrj.v0i0.620 ◽

1970 ◽

pp. 23-33

Author(s):

Ella Habina Shohat

Keyword(s):

Women's Issues ◽

The West ◽

End Of History ◽

Women's Cinema

At a time when the grand recits of the West have been told and retold ad infinitum, when a certain postmodernism (Lyotard) speaks of "end" to metanarratives, and when Fukayama speaks of an "end of history," we must ask: precisely whose narrative and whose history is being declared at an "end?"

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