Brainwashed: Sex - Camera - Power

Seit dem Skandal um Harvey Weinstein, dessen frauenverachtende Praxis als Produzent nicht nur ganz Hollywood, sondern die gesamte Filmbranche in Verruf zu bringen schien, wurde viel über Sexismus am Set diskutiert. In Menkes’ Filmessay geht es nun um die Filme, die ein solches System hervorbringt. Und keineswegs „nur“ um das klassische Hollywoodkino. Vielmehr wird anhand von über 70 Ausschnitten aus Arbeiten wie BLADE RUNNER, aber auch TITANE analysiert, wie der Ausschluss von Frauen auf der großen Leinwand funktioniert und was er bewirkt. Feministische Gesellschaftskritik als gelebte ästhetische Erfahrung. Tut gut! (Katja Wiederspahn)

It is very difficult to remain indifferent while watching Nina Menkes’ BRAINWASHED: SEX-CAMERA-POWER. The film is a compelling and extensive analysis of how the industry of dreams contributed to a relentless objectification of women over many decades that eventually translated into a reality still marked by gender discrimination and abuse. Inspired by a lecture that Menkes has been giving for around 25 years now, the film version of “Sex and Power: The Visual Language of Oppression” features dozens of examples of how the very grammar of cinema, its “writing with light”, helped create an image of women essentially based on their attractiveness to the eyes of men. Menkes doesn’t spare the sacred names of cinema history and provokes her audience to face the dark side of timeless masterpieces. The topics that are raised while watching the movie are imperative for the definition of the 7th art and its very future and push us to ask ourselves who and what defines a masterpiece. If this issue has accompanied cinema across its entire history, BRAINWASHED lightens a gender perspective that will change our way of seeing movies for quite some time nonetheless. (Rebecca De Pas)

Nina Menkes: THE GREAT SADNESS OF ZOHARA (1983), MAGDALENA VIRAGA (1986), QUEEN OF DIAMONDS (1991), THE BLOODY CHILD (1996), MASSAKER (2005, Ko-Regie), PHANTOM LOVE (2007), DISSOLUTION (2012)