Welcome to another edition of Feminist Friday! That part of our week where we gather around our devices grab some snacks and fangirl over our fave content right now. This week’s theme is all about female filmmakers and female-driven content. With all the conversations about the lack of equal representation in Hollywood and the greater global film industry, coupled with the #MeToo movement exposing the deep-rooted consequences of seeing so few women in positions of power and creative control, we believe it’s important to support the work of female creators and be part of the movement to create visibility.
So let’s dive straight into this week’s lineup, starting off with a new comedic web series called ‘Asian Rocks’. The series was created by Peace Joy Harmony Productions and stars Jane Park as a twenty-something Asian New Yorker who battles with the typical Asian stereotypes on a daily basis. The first episode explores the ideal thinking that Asian beauty is “exotic” in society, but not noticeable enough for mainstream fashion and beauty standards.
The series came about after Jane met writer director Wizeman Khnum Khensu at a filmmaking conference and she expressed her frustration to him about the lack of substantial roles, and he suggested she star in her own show. He ended up writing 5 episodes for the web series around an Asian actress struggling to make it in NYC. The rest, as they say, is history. In total there will be 13 episodes for the first season. Watch the trailer below, and if you like what you see, be sure to follow @AsianRocksNYC on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as more episodes get released.
The second video is a trailer for a short film called ‘Escape’, from director Caryn Waechter and writer Meredith Littas, the story follows the story of Meadow, portrayed by breakout actress Ana Grace Knight, as she’s forced to confront the abuses that have been committed against her. By reconciling with her past, Meadow is able to overcome the traumatic experiences she’s faced and take control of her own narrative.
‘Escape’ came to fruition after Meredith was tasked by a male film executive to write about something she believed that others would not want to know about. She then used her own experiences to craft a story that the world would soon realize was reflective of so many women in the entertainment industry, alluding to the #MeToo movement and the numerous stories about sexual harassment and rape.
The film screened during the Canned Film Festival earlier this year and has also been shown at the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival. The mission of ‘Escape’ is to bring the disempowered from darkness and shed light on those who abuse their power. To create action and tangible change by combining forces to tell true stories that need to be told. Let the truth begin.
Our final video is a trailer for a feature film all the way from Ireland. ‘Kissing Candice’ is the debut feature from director Aoife McArdle whose background is in advertising and making videos for the likes of U2 and Bryan Ferry, but some of her most high-profile work includes the Audi Superbowl ad, which is all about female empowerment.
The story follows a young woman called Candice, who dreams – during an epileptic fit – of a young man that she falls in love with. But in pursuing the guy, she nearly gets mixed up with a local gang of terrifying youths. In an interview with Thejournal.ie, Aoife says it was an imperative for her to make a film from the perspective of a young woman.
“We’ve seen so many films from the perspective of men and I thought ‘I want to make a film that was visceral and dangerous and thrilling where it was a woman who was at the center’. On loads of levels that made sense, being a female director, and I think we haven’t seen enough female stories and we need to see more of that because everybody needs variety in the stories they’re hearing about,” she said.
In particular, portraying a story about sexuality from the female gaze was something important to her.
“Female sexuality, I think’s a huge subject that we don’t get to delve into that much and I was really interested in showing that on screen. It’s something you always get to see, where the man is the instigator of all the sexual relationships and romances. And I wanted the female in this to be who’s going after what she wanted and was being very direct and proactive about that,” she told the paper.
Aoife has been following the #MeToo movement and subsequent discussions closely and thinks it is a positive thing to see these awful stories being highlighted and exposed.
“Hopefully all the weird negative stuff that we’re highlighting is going to turn into positive stuff. And I think women have been a lot more empowered in their working lives, and having more opportunities, and not having to deal with sexual predators would be a big bonus obviously so your energy could go into being creative, rather than fobbing off the advances of unwanted attention,” she said. Watch the trailer for ‘Kissing Candice’ below:
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