21st Century Women: Three Women-Led Films Redefining Gender Roles
Available to stream now through ‘FACETS Virtual Cinema’ are three incredible films made by and starring women – Dead Pigs (until 7/22), Les Nôtres (until 7/29) and Platform (until 8/5). Watch them now before they’re gone to experience the journey of several different women from various international backgrounds and explore what it means to be a woman in this day and age.
Over the past decade, women directors have been given a larger platform worldwide, allowing for diverse stories exploring the full range of humanity. We here at FACETS hope this promising trend will continue in the years to come, and want to highlight recent films that have braved the turbulent tides of change in order to challenge the status quo and chart a better course for women in film.
While each of these films are from different parts of the world and deal with different subject matter, they all provide an incisive look at their respective societies and have distinctly feminine perspectives. Not only is this accomplished through their directors, but by having the stories be told through the eyes of their women protagonists.
While each film explores feminine perspectives in their own way, the central theme in all three films is societal change and the struggles and hope that carries. The protagonists of these films range in age, nationality, and class, but are each battling the tides of change–most of the time swimming against the current of monotony and status quos.
Dead Pigs
Before Birds of Prey, Chinese-American film director Cathy Yan directed Dead Pigs, a fictional story based in non-fiction that satirizes late-stage capitalism and globalization in China and abroad. The film is an ensemble piece where character’s lives intersect, but it is driven by women both on and off the screen. Dead Pigs helped launch the careers of Cathy Yan and German-American actress Zazie Beetz, putting both of them on Hollywood’s radar.
In an interview with IGN about Birds of Prey, Yan discusses her use of color in Dead Pigs with China’s neon lights as her inspiration for breaking with tradition and exploring a bright and colorful daytime Gotham. Yan’s love of color and Chinese background is what largely enabled her to give both Birds of Prey and Dead Pigs an original worldview. Canadian film Les Nôtres also delivers an original worldview through its investigation on small town mindsets during an age of globalization and intrusively intense social media.
Dead Pigs is available to stream virtually through FACETS Virtual Cinema from now until 7/22.
Les Nôtres
Content Warning: This section discusses sensitive content in the film dealing with childhood sexual assault.
A Canadian film by Jeanne Leblanc about a young girl who discovers she is pregnant after being sexually abused; the film highlights this small town’s carefully maintained veil of perfection before tearing it down. While some may be reluctant to watch given the potentially triggering subject matter, critics praise the respect and refrain from sensationalism territory (a pitfall many films of this sort fall prey to) Les Nôtres gives to such trauma. The focus remains on our young protagonist and her struggle: not the town’s, not her mother’s and certainly not her rapist’s.
The film refrains from the all-too-common drama-filled narrative surrounding teen pregnancies and instead retains focus on the every-day life of a 13-year-old protagonist silently living with worsening trauma. Exploring themes like parenthood, assault, mental health and of course gender roles Les Nôtres redefines the “teen pregnancy” trope by giving it the reality check it needs to pull it into the 21st century, elevating it past a mere trope by exploring rarely disclosed realities.
Les Nôtres is available at FACETS Virtual Cinema from now until 7/29.
Platform
Similarly to Les Nôtres, Platform also explores another rarely disclosed reality: the lives of three 30-something year old sisters who are competitive athletes in Iran. While there are numerous films detailing the plethora of struggles in the Middle East–from economic and social to political–Iranian director Sahar Mosayebi puts that all in the backdrop, allowing three sisters’ grapple with athletic discrimination, gender roles and societal expectations to take center stage.
Experience three sisters’ everyday lives in Iran as they fight to be given the same opportunity as men in their sport, Wushu, a form of martial arts from China, while fighting calls from others to step down, retire and get married. Platform is currently the highest grossing documentary to come out of Iran. Observe the compelling lives of these sisters on screen and it’ll become apparent why.
Stream Platform online from the comfort of your home, or wherever you watch, via FACETS Virtual Cinema from now until 8/5.
Platform, Les Nôtres and Dead Pigs are all directed by women, starring women, who share their unique perspectives and stories only they could tell. Whether it be Yan’s use of color, Leblanc’s gentle approach to trauma, or Mosayebi’s challenge of the stereotyped Middle East, these films will offer an experience as only they can.
One may never know what it is like to live on the fringes of a group, daring to make waves as only they can while holding onto a raging current of modernity, but these films will get as close as they can to a shared understanding of it.
As more women begin to direct their own films, we see their unique perspectives and are better able to reflect on gender roles and what it means to be a woman in the 21st century. With more perspective comes a better understanding of the world we all share and inhabit, and with a broadened perspective the tides of change are no less harsh but easier to navigate.
Watch Dead Pigs, Les Nôtres, Platform and more films now through FACETS Virtual Cinema here.
Author: Kelly Kayed is an Editorial Assistant Intern at FACETS. She received her B.A. in Asian Studies from Bowling Green State University after completing her thesis on employment opportunities for single mothers in Japan. Having lived in a variety of places from bustling Los Angeles to small town Bowling Green, Ohio, and even Japan, her writing is a cumulation of the various environments lived in, perspectives traded and people she’s met along the way.
