El cine de mujeres como coartífice de nuevas formas de ser mujer, ser hombre, ser especie humana

Se propone una perspectiva feminista emancipatoria orientada a destacar la forma como las directoras Margareth Von Trota, Deepa Mehta y Sofia Coppola abordan las emociones, la corporalidad y formas de reacción de las protagonistas de sus films. Las directoras exploran terrenos afectivos, corporales y políticos en momentos de tensión: cuando la comunidad de mujeres de un internado es amenazada por un predador sexual en la posguerra en el sur convulsionado por la guerra civil El Seductor (Coppola,2017); o a través de la tensa relación político-filial Las Hermanas Alemanas (Von Trotta,1981); o bajo ordenamientos culturales de la cultura India que no considera sujetos jurídicos a las mujeres Fuego, Tierra, Aire, Agua y Cielo (Mehta,1996, 1998, 2005, 2008). Desde perspectivas culturales diversas, las tres directoras han impactado en los feminismos contemporáneos, sin caer en las trivialidades del igualitarismo ni en estereotipos; en contraste con algunas películas comerciales que responden con frivolidad a la creciente demanda de cine feminista.

Self-reflexivity and the Representation of The Indian Diasporic Community in Deepa Mehta’s Bollywood/Hollywood

This paper discusses Deepa Mehta’s lighthearted romantic comedy Bollywood/Hollywood as a representation of the Indian diasporic community settled in Canada. What makes this film especially interesting is that it focuses on how, for overseas Indians, Bollywood offers the possibility of accessing the home culture in a globalised world. Bollywood as an industry is synonymous with the genre of family melodrama, and when Mehta uses this term it represents, not just the Bombay Film Industry, but also the cultural iconicity of the genre, which in turn represents the film sensibility of the entire ‘mass’ of Indians located within the country and in the diaspora. At one level, the film is a lighthearted comic portrayal of the Indo-Canadian community in Toronto and its strong connection with “our magnificent Indian culture” (B/H) through the Hindi movies churned out by Bollywood. At a closer look at a number of scenes, light is cast on the way Deepa Mehta emphasizes the cultural divides through interesting narrative and visual constructions. The actual argument of the film emerges in a dialectical reading and recognition of the oppositional forces operating within and without the narrative world. What is particularly striking about this film is its self-reflexivity. It announces itself as a Bollywood melodrama and celebrates this identity. Bollywood is thus positioned as both a subject and an object of contemplation—a world of Cinema that is a part of our memory and a vehicle of history. The critique of the formula also comes from within the formulaic narrative itself. Deepa Mehta constantly uses the genre and also plays around with it in interesting ways

Mind The Gap Exploring The Experiences Of Diasporic Media Producers And Representations Of Cultural Diversity In Canada

Prime-time narrative is the most watched and influential genre of television. It creates a sense of belonging and contributes to identity formation. It also receives the largest amount of publicly mandated funding in the form of investment, subsidies, and tax incentives in Canada. Anecdotal and empirical evidence suggests that despite legislation requiring equitable representation in all aspects of screen media, and over thirty years of many “special initiatives” and training and mentorship programs, little progress has been made in the area of equitable representation in narrative programming. This dissertation investigates the representation of diasporic people of colour in the screen-media industry in Canada. In particular, it studies how “authentic voices” from these communities are finding expression in the area of prime-time television narrative programming (scripted comedy and drama) and feature films, which ultimately find their largest audiences in broadcast screen platforms on television and increasingly via the Internet. The focus is on the legislative frameworks pertaining to the reflection of “diasporic communities of colour” in the production of screen media, specifically for prime-time broadcast in narrative, or what is referred to in the industry as “scripted programming,” as well as on the current realities faced by creators of screen media from diasporic communities of colour in telling their stories in this arena. Through a case study of the television series Little Mosque on the Prairie, it examines the issues that affect the expression of “authentic voice” from individuals who have had the opportunity to work in the area of narrative screen media in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada’s public broadcaster, which has as one of its key priorities the reflection of the cultural diversity of Canada. The issues involved in the production of feature films by diasporic people of colour is examined through a case study of the film Heaven on Earth, written and directed by Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta. Mehta’s film presents a unique situation in which the filmmaker, due to the previous international success of her film Water, was able to access the financial resources to produce the film in Canada and maintain her “authentic voice” without mediation in the production from external players. Part of this case study includes a documentary film featuring an interview with Deepa Mehta conducted in 2017 about her film Heaven on Earth.

Mind The Gap Exploring The Experiences Of Diasporic Media Producers And Representations Of Cultural Diversity In Canada

Prime-time narrative is the most watched and influential genre of television. It creates a sense of belonging and contributes to identity formation. It also receives the largest amount of publicly mandated funding in the form of investment, subsidies, and tax incentives in Canada. Anecdotal and empirical evidence suggests that despite legislation requiring equitable representation in all aspects of screen media, and over thirty years of many “special initiatives” and training and mentorship programs, little progress has been made in the area of equitable representation in narrative programming. This dissertation investigates the representation of diasporic people of colour in the screen-media industry in Canada. In particular, it studies how “authentic voices” from these communities are finding expression in the area of prime-time television narrative programming (scripted comedy and drama) and feature films, which ultimately find their largest audiences in broadcast screen platforms on television and increasingly via the Internet. The focus is on the legislative frameworks pertaining to the reflection of “diasporic communities of colour” in the production of screen media, specifically for prime-time broadcast in narrative, or what is referred to in the industry as “scripted programming,” as well as on the current realities faced by creators of screen media from diasporic communities of colour in telling their stories in this arena. Through a case study of the television series Little Mosque on the Prairie, it examines the issues that affect the expression of “authentic voice” from individuals who have had the opportunity to work in the area of narrative screen media in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada’s public broadcaster, which has as one of its key priorities the reflection of the cultural diversity of Canada. The issues involved in the production of feature films by diasporic people of colour is examined through a case study of the film Heaven on Earth, written and directed by Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta. Mehta’s film presents a unique situation in which the filmmaker, due to the previous international success of her film Water, was able to access the financial resources to produce the film in Canada and maintain her “authentic voice” without mediation in the production from external players. Part of this case study includes a documentary film featuring an interview with Deepa Mehta conducted in 2017 about her film Heaven on Earth.

Perceptual Interface and Painterly Cinema

The fifth chapter of Style in Narrative in part parallels the second chapter, but with a shift from literature to cinema. Specifically, it takes genre as its scope, though it considers genre in visual representation, rather than story structure. Moreover, in this case, it focuses on an unusual genre, one that is not widely identified as a genre—painterly films, which is to say, films that draw their visual models from non-cinematic forms of visual art. The chapter presents an account of the kinds and functions of painterly film, ranging from mere allusion through imitation of a period or movement, to the cultivation of broader sensitivities characteristic of painting beyond a specific period. This chapter considers works by Luis Buñuel, Éric Rohmer, Deepa Mehta, and M. F. Husain. It focuses particularly on Robert Rodriguez’s remediation of graphic fiction, in part to prepare the way for the treatment of graphic fiction later in the book.

Men from the Lenses of Deepa Mehta in Fire and Water

Movie in this era has become one of the dominant modes of disseminating perceptions. Women and their issues are vital themes of women centric movies. Stereotypically, these movies display women and their position in patriarchal society. Displaying women and their issues in women centric movies is rationally expected but how men are displayed in such movies has not been given much consideration. Customarily men in such movies are presented negative which have negative impact on their audiences too. This article sets its attention on how men are seen from the lenses of women and shown in women-oriented movies. Deepa Mehta is selected to analyze how she has seen men through her lenses and represented them in Fire and Water. Qualitative research methodology is adopted where Deepa Mehta's Fire (1996) and Water (2005) are the primary data and other resources based on it are secondary. Fire is the story of two lesbian women and Water is about widowhood. Characters like Ashok, Jatin, Mundu, in Fire and Seth, Sadananda and Narayan in Water are studied and found that they are presented as the agents of the patriarchal society. Men are exhibited with all the set masculine traits as strong, brave, bold, intelligent, assertive, aggressive, savior, ruler, educated, handsome, smart, dynamic, powerful who can construct the society as they want. Sexually obsessed men in the movies represent the existing Indian patriarchal society. Abusing woman verbally, physically, mentally and sexually is considered as men's privilege. This justifies that Mehta is unable to deconstruct the notion of masculinity as presented by men directors. She also falls in the trap prescribed by patriarchy and for this she has to present men with all positive and masculine traits and women with negative feminine traits. This kind of representation of men has a large impact on the mass because of unintentional imitation.

Elsewhere

FQ Columnist Bilal Qureshi reflects on Deepa Mehta's film Earth at an important moment in Indian and global history. Writing from New Delhi, he had the opportunity to speak to Mehta in person about her life and work, and that discussion is woven into this column. Since making Earth almost twenty years ago, Deepa Mehta has seen her stature grow to include film festival premieres, an Oscar nomination, and a platform as one of the rare women auteurs on the international stage. She has lived in Canada since the 1970s, but her most celebrated films are not about immigrant displacement or hyphenated identity. Rather, she has always told Indian stories. From the groundbreaking story of a lesbian relationship between two housewives in suffocating arranged marriages (Fire, 1996) to the forced exile of widows in orthodox Hindu scripture (Water, 2005), she has confronted uncomfortable social realities in Indian society. Although she has been labeled an anti-national and had sets burned and cinemas attacked by the religious right for insulting traditional values, she has taken the challenges in stride and continued making films.