Four indie films on womanhood available on Netflix
If you’re not a straight white male, the journey to have your work in film respected can be a tumultuous one.
A study conducted by the University of Southern California last year found that females made up roughly 34 per cent of speaking roles in movies and scripted series produced in 2014 and 2015.
Racial minorities also face severe underrepresentation in Hollywood, and there remain few realistic and non-stereotypical lesbian, gay andtransgender roles available.
For that reason, it’s often in the realm of independent film that we get to see stories about women and minorities that big studios consider too financially risky to produce.
Independent filmmakers — not as limited by the requirement that their work be commercially viable — can focus on the unique and very real experiences of women, including stories that are too controversial or taboo for mainstream cinema.
Here are four independent films that provide refreshingly realistic stories about women and their unique experiences. Each of the following films are currently available on Netflix Canada.
Tangerine (2015) directed by Sean S. Baker
Best friends Sin-Dee Rella and Alexandra are transgender women of colour who work as prostitutes in an unglamorous part of Los Angeles. We meet them in a doughnut shop on Christmas Eve, catching up after Sin-Dee has served jail time for 28 days.
Alexandra tells Sin-Dee that her boyfriend and pimp, Chester, has been unfaithful with a cisgender woman named Dinah during her time away. The remainder of the film follows Sin-Dee as she furiously and hilariously searches for Dinah on the streets of LA.
Tangerine was shot on an iPhone 5s, using a Steadicam rig and an app called FiLMiC Pro that costs $8. With its oversaturated colours and documentary-like camera work, the film is stylistically unique.
Obvious Child (2014) directed by Gillian Robespierre
Starring Jenny Slate — the co-writer and voice artist behind the stop-motion YouTube film Marcel the Shell — Obvious Child tells the story of a young woman who finds herself pregnant shortly after losing her job and her long-term boyfriend.
From Juno to Knocked Up, unplanned pregnancy stories aren’t new to the film world. But Obvious Child is one of the only films I’ve ever seen that directly devotes itself to the issue of abortion and other topics related to female reproductive health.
Though the film’s comedy may not be for everyone, it refreshingly deals with subject matter that many female viewers will be surprised, and perhaps grateful, to see addressed on-screen.
Short Term 12 (2013) directed by Destin Daniel Cretton
I originally watched Short Term 12 because there had been Oscar buzz surrounding Brie Larson’s role in the film. Larson plays Grace, a young supervisor at a group home full of at-risk teenagers.
Grace gives everything she has towards these kids, because it’s part of the way she copes with her own traumatic memories from childhood.
At work, she’s nurturing and assertive, but she secretly struggles with her own mental health issues and an untimely pregnancy at home. Her character is emotionally complex and imperfect, and that’s what makes her
so likeable.
Grace holds everything together at the group home, just as Larson does for the film itself.
Girlhood (2014) directed by Céline Sciamma
After abruptly finding out that she has no educational future, young teenager Marieme is invited into a gang of girls in a poor suburb of Paris.
Throughout the film, a true coming-of-age story, she gains confidence and a sense of maturity through her newfound social life.
The film’s narrative centers primarily on the lives and relationships of young black teenagers. It deals with intersections of race and gender, as well as the ways that sexuality further complicates Marieme’s adolescence.
Girlhood is visually stunning with its use of bright red, blue and purple hues and it plays with light to emphasize the emotions of characters throughout.
Its musical accompaniment includes everything from synthesizers to “Diamonds” by Rihanna, giving the film an even greater sense of electricity.
