Fair share of the silver screen?

Women filmmakers represent a harsh reality at the Chicago International Film Festival

By Erica Phillips
Published: October 29th, 2008 | 11:25am

There were more movies than any one chica could possibly check out at this year’s International Film Festival in Chicago — acclaimed pictures from around the world, well-known actors venturing into the directorial circle (Gael García Bernal, for one), serious pieces with timely political messages — but as your faithful Venus Zine rep, I kept my mind to a singular track: the ladies. Of the 110 feature-length non-documentaries at the fest, 20 starred a female main character, 14 were written solely by women, and 13 were woman-directed (though it should be noted that an additional 20 were co-directed by a male-female team). So, somewhat skeptically, I put together my short list of “must-sees,” packed my notebook and some snacks (chocolate cupcake, check), and went to the movies.

I attended seven films from five countries, all directed by women, and all featuring deeply complex female characters: from The Mermaid’s young protagonist, Alice, who is taken up completely by the first embarrassing pangs of love; to the 20-somethings who face lonely internal struggles in Nights and Weekends, Snow, and Wendy and Lucy; to the self-sacrificing women of Heaven on Earth and Sita Sings the Blues, who suffer their husbands’ abuse and take them back time and again. Somehow, witnessing the on-screen depiction of a lady with substance is still a rare thing to find in the movies, and I was oh-so proud of these artists for putting it out there, being just so layered and introspective and real.

The annoying thing about reality, though, is that it’s not as sweet as a chocolate cupcake. As I walked away each evening, I was confronted with a similar revelation: After all their introspection and toil, these girls still relied on the men around them for the solutions to their problems. In Wendy and Lucy, it’s the security guard who loans Wendy (Michelle Williams) a few bucks and the use of his cell phone when her car breaks down; in Nights and Weekends, the creative and quirky Mattie (Greta Gerwig) looks to her ex-boyfriend James (Joe Swanberg) to help build her career network when she feels unfocused; and in Snow, the women of Slavno who have built a canning business together would get nowhere if not for the help of a random trucker — who happens to be interested in the strong-willed Alma (Zana Marjanovic) — for the transportation of their goods. In the larger picture, the strong leading ladies of these stories would have downright failed if a few well-connected dudes hadn’t shown up right at their weakest, most desperate hour. So saved by the prince, here we stand yet again.

Though they are no doubt fierce story-tellers, our sisters of the screen still only count for roughly one-third of the directorship in the global film genre. What’s more distressing is the apparent fact that our contemporary ladies — real and fictional — continue to face the problem of self-determination. In an ideal femme-friendly world, the expression of this greater societal quandary may be the first baby step toward its demise. Either that, or we could all just eat some cupcakes.

Check out the movies I saw and ponder it for yourself.

Days in Between (Germany), 1 out of 5 stars

The Plot: A middle-aged woman leads a plain sort of life as her family’s breadwinner, then begins a strange affair with an old widow whose name she never learns.

Expect: awkward moments, annoyingly inexplicable character behavior

Heaven on Earth (Canada), 3 out of 5 stars

The Plot: A girl from the Punjab region of India is sent to Canada to marry a family friend, but soon realizes that he is physically and mentally abusive.

Expect: painfully graphic domestic abuse, tears, snakes

The Mermaid (Russia), 4.5 out of 5 stars

The Plot: A magical young girl moves from a small coastal town to Moscow with her mother and grandmother, where she dyes her hair green and begins following around a hot rich guy who finds her intriguing.

Expect: surrealistic moments, a new love for Russia

Nights and Weekends (USA), 2.5 out of 5 stars

The Plot: A frustrating long-distance relationship is obviously not working. One year later, the couple meets up in New York for an attempt at a rendezvous.

Expect: male body parts, mumblecore (i.e. improvised scenes that hit closer to home than anything you thought you’d see on the big screen)

Sita Sings the Blues (USA), 4 out of 5 stars

The Plot: Part ancient Indian fable, part tragic American love story, and part blues music video, this animated feature is subtitled “the greatest break-up story of all time.”

Expect: to fall hard for the music, the narrators, and cartoonist Nina Paley

Snow (Bosnia-Herzegovina), 4 out of 5 stars

The Plot: A small group of women are the only ones left in their Bosnian village after the war in 1997.

Expect: heavy symbolism and a seemingly abrupt ending — you might need to rent it and watch it more than once

Wendy and Lucy (USA), 4 out of 5 stars

The Plot: A young lady, tired of life in Fort Wayne, Indiana, gets in her car and drives to Alaska — only to get stuck along the way in a small town in Oregon where she loses her dog and nearly all her money.

Expect: the truest of frustrating situations and calm desperation, a very relatable Michelle Williams