The category Female Gaze presents ten films that are linked not only through the presence of strong female protagonists but also by the complicated situations in which they find themselves – whether it is war, an effort to break through into a world steeped in masculinity, or the battle to win basic natural rights.
Sport is one of the typical environments that continues to be male-dominated. While the documentary The Last Expedition goes back in time and tracks the difficulties faced by the famous mountaineer Wanda Rutkiewicz, the fiction film Julie Keeps Quiet focuses on the abuse of power in the relationship between a coach and his protégée. The audience is confronted with the question of why the rising star of a tennis team is the only one to remain silent after her coach disappears following an accusation of abuse.
Writing Hawa tracks the stories of three generations of Afghani women. The director chiefly documents her mother on the path to greater independence and an education, which is brutally interrupted by the return of the Taliban and the systematic repression of women’s rights throughout the country. The protagonist of XiXi is also battling for her independence and the ability to live a free-thinking life. She grew up as an artist in heavily censored China. The film tracks her friendship with the director, whom she met in Europe, where she also began to fully enjoy freedom and to find herself.
Another film in this category is My Sextortion Diary, which is the director’s personal narrative. After her computer was stolen, she received emails threatening to publish nude photos of her. This documentary detective story played out on a computer screen is emancipatory, but also at the same time a warning against the growing, yet still insufficiently publicised topic of sexual extortion.
