Out Takes

23 Aug 2016

Female Representation in International Cinema

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Female Representation in International Cinema

This week on Out Takes we celebrate the plethora of nationally and ethnically diverse film festivals at our fingertips in Melbourne. The Arab Film Festival has just wrapped up, the Melbourne Indian Film Festival is now well under way, and the Cine Latino Film Festival is about to commence.

Against the backdrop of ‘Gender Matters’, Screen Australia’s recent initiative to promote gender inclusivity on our screens (and behind the scenes), we look at the ways that films screening at the festivals represent women, and ask what broader inferences can be drawn about the representation of women in films made in non-Western countries.

It’s a big topic, which traverses a number of different ethnic and national cinemas. So we call in the authorities: Alex Castro, Cine Latino Film Festival Programmer joins us to talk about the representation of women in South American cinema. This year marks the first Cine Latino Film Festival here in Melbourne, and is presented by Palace Cinemas.

We’re also joined by Leena Yada, the directer of PARCHED, which screened on the opening night of the Melbourne Indian Film Festival. It’s been called a ‘feminist drama’ for its unabashed representation of the lives of women in India’s rural communities. We ask Yadav how Indian cinemas have traditionally represented women, and whether she set out to pioneer a new type of feminist drama.

We also chat with Assad Fouladkar, director of HALAL LOVE, which has been hailed for breaking down barriers around the representation of women in Lebanese cinema. HALAL LOVE screened on the opening night of Cinema Nova’s Arab Film Festival.

Essential viewing: Parched (2015, Dir Leena Yadav)

Hungry for more: Halal Love (2015, Dir Assad Fouladkar).