Marieke / Thesis
Potential title: Worst Case Scenario
Introduction
- The high five story could be referenced
There are those stories that are so sickening that they feel like a punch in the gut.
In the best case the story is fictional, in the worst case the story is real.
I had my own gut punch moment when I read a story about a woman under influence who was raped by two students. After the assault they left the woman in the toilet, who was so severely wounded she needed surgery.
There were also 2 recordings.
One recording was of the rape. Both men admitted watching their attack back on a mobile phone while making lewd-gestures and re-enacting what they had done to the woman.
The other recording came from a surveillance camera. Where the men can be seen hugging, high-fiving each other and.. laughing. Seemingly as it was an experience that bonded their brotherhood.
Sexual violence is already horrifying as it is, when this violence is also recorded it adds another layer to this invasion. I imagined how I would feel if I went through such an experience and I would be aware that the perpetrators would look back at my pain because it would arouse them. Besides that, in the above case the woman was unconscious so she has no recollection of the assault herself, but the men do. Robbing the woman of any closure or healing she would have hoped to find after this terrifying experience.
The "high five" recording was shared on several news websites.
Chapter 1. The burden of looking
In my opinion there are 2 types of viewers when it comes to violent cinema. Those who cover their eyes or those who lean in so they can see it just a bit better.
Responses to violence:
- As a viewer
- As a filmmaker
How does that relate to me?
In recent years a big discussion has started on sexual violence. This gave me a lot of questions about responsibility. If you take the word responsibility apart it means: the ability to respond. Was it when the survivors came out with their stories in the #metoo movement their responsibility to tell their stories? Is that fair? Where does that leave me as an image maker? Now that this discussion is open and we are also becoming more critical of the images we consume, is it then my responsibility to produce images that deal with this trauma in an empathetic way?
In this part I want to focus on why in cinema whenever sexual assault is depicted it is mainly focused on the violence itself. Instead of the aftermath and its consequences for the survivor and their close ones. To find out what this approach in cinema does with the emotions of the viewer I want to have interviews. With friends, peers, family, strangers and preferably a psychologist and fellow filmmakers.
For Freud, the uncanny locates the strangeness in the ordinary. Expanding on the idea, psychoanalytic theorist Jacques Lacan wrote that the uncanny places us "in the field where we do not know how to distinguish bad and good, pleasure from displeasure", resulting in an irreducible anxiety that gestures to the Real.
If the narrative of a film does not distinguish between bad and good, pleasure from displeasure, does that envoke uncanny and fearful feelings in the viewer?
Abjection was defined as a reaction to the confrontation with the "abject", triggered by disgust or phobia (in this context, it refers to the products of processes of elimination, corpses and insects) which nonetheless have no status as objects, and do not belong to the self, and thus are seen as a threat by the subject, who rejects them.
How does abjection relate to voyeurism and fetishism in images?
Improv
Examples:
Mr. Blonde dancing/dialogue, Reservoir Dogs - Joker dancing, Joker
Chapter 2. An eye for an eye, the responsibility of the viewer
Diving in the accountability and contradictions of looking. I want to analyse if there is an elevated feeling of responsibility when choice is added.
Introduction Film & Game relation
- What I've drawn from this
- Case studies + Looking at techniques from both
Films to analyse:
Sex, Lies and Videotapes, Steven Soderbergh - American Beauty, Sam Mendes - Irréversible, Gaspar Noé - Funny Games, Michael Haneke - A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Ana Lily Amirpour - It Follows, David Robert Mitchell
Games to analyse:
Silent Hill 2, Konami - The Path, Tale of Tales - Life is Strange 2, Dontnod Entertainment
Video Art to analyse:
Der Mirror, Keren Cytter - Time Passes, Ane Hjort Guttu
Chapter 3. Report on Project
Conclusion
Preparing longer project and how this research will inform next stage.
Comments / Thesis questions:
- Abjection - How does this relate to the self in terms of response to violation?
- How does the self-reflexivity of your approach (and film mimic you are connecting to for this project) relate to abjection + the self?
Important:
- More texts on abjection (Look at abject theory)
- More & more violence being filmed in real life (This could be referenced)
- Themes of repression
Film recommendations Natasha:
- Sex, lies and videotapes - Steven Soderbergh
- Time Passes - Ane Hjort Guttu
- Naked - Mike Leigh