Date: Friday, May 24th – 3:30 PM
Location: John J. Louis Hall, Northwestern University
10 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston IL 60208, click here for directions
Free and open to the public.
Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power
(2022), USA, 107 min
Director: Nina Menkes
Co-presented by Northwestern University’s Women Filmmaker’s Alliance (NUWFA)
This screening is a part of the Chicago Mental Health Film Showcase
In this hard-hitting docu-essay, celebrated independent fiction filmmaker Nina Menkes explores the sexual politics of cinematic shot design. Using clips from hundreds of movies – from Metropolis to Vertigo to Phantom Thread – Menkes convincingly makes the argument that patriarchal narrative codes hide within “classic” set-ups and camera angles and demonstrates how women are frequently displayed as objects. Building on Laura Mulvey’s essential writings on the male gaze, Menkes shows how these embedded messages intersect with the twin epidemics of sexual abuse and assault, as well as employment discrimination against women, especially in the film industry. The film features interviews with Laura Mulvey, Julie Dash, Penelope Spheeris, Charlyne Yi, Joey Soloway, Catherine Hardwicke, Iyabo Kwayana, Eliza Hittman, and Rosanna Arquette among others. After extensive festival play at Sundance, Berlin, IDFA, and more, Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power was included in numerous “Ten Best of the Year” lists, including The Guardian, Sight & Sound, Alliance of Women Film Journalists, Roger Ebert, NPR, and many more.
Post-screening discussion with director Nina Menkes, professor Mimi White and other discussants.
About the Chicago Mental Health Film Showcase:
In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, Northwestern University’s Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab presents the Chicago Mental Health Film Showcase – two days of films, conversations, and a creative workshop with film consultant and narrative therapist Poh Lin Lee.
The three featured films include the award-winning hybrid documentary Island of the Hungry Ghosts; a hard-hitting feminist analysis of Hollywood’s cinematic language in Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power; and the regional premiere of the new French fiction film The Rapture (Le Ravissement). Ranging from migration and gendered cinematic shot design to motherhood, the topics of the selected films vary greatly, yet they are tied together by prompting questions about mental health in the context of greater societal and cultural conditions and pressures.
Film screenings and discussions are free and open to the public, the workshop with Poh Lin Lee is reserved for Northwestern students.
About the Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab:
Northwestern University’s Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab for the Promotion of Mental Health via Cinematic Arts creatively examines representations of mental illness and health on screen and supports students in the production of original media art works that challenge stereotypes. Student filmmakers, faculty, visiting artists, and the wider public engage with the studio lab in a variety of ways – from the production of new works and courses to public events such as the Chicago Mental Health Film Showcase. We strive to tackle complex topics, destigmatize mental illness, and promote healing through creative innovation and inquiry.