Sundance 2022: Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power: A Hard Look at How Our Brains are Shaped By Visuals

Happy 2022! Welcome to our first review of the New Year and our coverage of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. This year boasted a plethora of amazing concepts and films and the first of our featured films begins here!

Thought you knew all the ways that toxic patriarchy seeps into your brain and creates the way you view and think about women? Think again.

Nina Menkes, writer, director, producer brings forth a powerhouse of information from years of film showing how “gendered” film really is and how white, cis men keep their power by creating it.

The Male Gaze

Menkes uses one of her film classes as the backdrop to the documentary. Through her extensive knowledge of film and using copious amounts of film clips throughout the years as examples, Menkes makes the claim that shot design is “gendered”.

She claims that shots surrounding males and females are consistently made differently. Using the concept of “the male gaze”, coined by Laura Mulvey in the 1970’s, and interviewing a diverse number of directors and scholars, Menkes makes a powerful and compelling case that the male gaze has infiltrated almost all aspects of film since its beginning.

She outlines how the patriarchy has created what it is to be a woman, in its image and how damaging this image has become to women, men and people of all genders. She discusses how women are shot in order to be objects instead of subjects, rather, how they are looked “at” by the audience and the men in films.

Tricks of the Trade

Through the use of framing, lighting, camera movement, narrative position Menkes shows us some of the biggest differences in how men are shot versus women. She states that men are usually shot in 3D lighting versus women who are shot in 2D, which makes the woman more of an image rather than a person.

She states that women are shot in fragments a lot, i.e., we see close ups of breasts, buttocks, genitals etc., which objectifies women by their body parts rather than seeing them as a whole person. Male filmmakers tend to use slow-motion body pans more on women, as a subject of sexuality but with men, slo-mo shots are reserved for action sequences.

Source: Glamour

Menkes claims that what is seen as beauty is entirely controlled by who controls the cameras, which, throughout most of history has been mostly white men.

The question is raised, how do women navigate being powerful, yet sexy enough to the male gaze? It is addressed that men use glamour to “seduce” women into powerlessness, yet the only way women can be powerful is by being “beautiful”.

Thinking back to all of my days watching films and I can confirm that just about every single leading lady in the history of mainstream film falls within the parameters of beauty of the white male gaze. Thin, white, hairless, a perfect hairstyle, makeup and the perfect wardrobe. Have you ever seen one film where a woman wakes up with no makeup on?

As it is in mainstream society, a woman’s power in any industry belongs to her attractiveness and by her using her sexuality. How many times have we heard of a woman “sleeping” her way to the top? Casting couches anyone? Or how about Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, R. Kelly and Marilyn Manson’s use of toxic power to sleaze their wishes of power over promising young women in entertainment?

Keeping a woman passive is another technique used, whether a woman is passed out, asleep or even dead. Menkes shows multiple clips of films where men use a woman’s passivity in order to gain power over her or use the “no means yes” approach; when the man overpowers or forces a sexual encounter. Most of the time the woman featured is depicted as “happy” that the encounter happened.

What kind of message is this sending to young men? Where do men get the idea that a woman is something to be acquired rather than an equal? The saying that “those in power write history” is ringing all too true in film as well as regular society. Societal “norms” come from somewhere and it’s generally cis-male and white.

Maria Giese. Source: Sundance Film Festival

The Power Imbalance

94%, yes that’s right, 94% of women in film have experienced sexual harassment or assault.

Maria Geise, film director and longtime women in film advocate stated that, in general, laws are not created to deal with the film industry in order to foster fairness.

She stated that they attempted to sue the film industry for discrimination against women using Title VII, as Hollywood is one of its worst offenders, even over the coal mining industry. Though they made some headway using the power of the EEOC, things still haven’t changed. As of 2021 only 12% of directors of the top 100 films were women, down from 16% last year. Maria has been actively fighting this since the 1990’s.

As it stands today, only 5% of film composers are women; around 16% of cinematographers are women and most film distribution houses are run by men. With statistics like this there’s no way what we are seeing in mainstream film isn’t biased.

In 2010 Kathryn Bigelow became the FIRST female director in all of Oscar history to win a Best Director Oscar. Looking at the rest of the crew though, every other head of department was run by a male. People have criticized her stating that she could’ve hired more women, but, according to producer, writer, director Amy Ziering, a director’s hands are tied on who to hire as producers/heads of departments, as there simply aren’t many women to hire.

Anyone who dares to complain about it simply gets blacklisted and never works again.

The message sent is that white, cis males run everything and use that power to pull everyone else into their lies. According to the film, they believe themselves to be the “ultimate subject” and it is normalized and accepted as truth by mainstream society.

Joey Solloway. Source: Sundance Film Festival

In All Honesty…

Brainwashed is a triumph and an essential “must see” for film buffs and audiences alike.
Menkes brings an enormous amount of information to us using her expertise, that is imperative to know about. Even with my extensive knowledge on film, I have to admit, I wasn’t aware of specific lighting techniques and how certain shots create subjects vs. objects.

The use of power by men over women is nothing new, but when we can see so many of the insidious ways we are programmed by them, it is much harder not to see them again. We become something of a robot without it, programmed to go out into the world and emulate what power wants us to emulate. Cause, hey, if we are busy hating ourselves, we won’t be busy figuring out how to balance that power.

I’m appalled with what I hear coming out of an industry that has the ability and resources to create things of such beauty and magic. It’s the main reason I created this company because film artists should be able to enjoy fair employment without having to degrade themselves or sell their souls to do what they love.

I’m grateful to and celebrate people like Menkes and all of the people in this film, who use film to reach, teach and enlighten. It is one of the most important types of media existing and has the capability to change the world—if only the gatekeepers would get out of the way.

Art needs to be available and accessible to everyone not just those who can afford it or the reigning gender/race. It is crucial in our ever evolving and diverse world that we open ourselves to more voices with integrity and without stereotype. We won’t be able to move forward as a collective without seeing the “whole” of everyone’s experiences.

A power shift is more than necessary to do. Right. Now. Filmmakers, think before you make. Writers, write with great care and respect for the craft and the world. Producers and distributors, use more than profits to justify your choices. Hollywood and the mainstream film industry, open up, change and progress, else bear the burden of your eventual demise.

The fire of change is sweeping the earth, whether you like it or not. Stand in its way at your own peril.