Experimental films

This study investigates the use of film and video as political tools for women to promote collectivity, raise consciousness, and incite both social and political change. Through textual analysis of seven experimental films and videos, from the years 1965-1975, it is apparent that women used techniques of reclamation of three major aspects of identity formation—namely, body, pleasure, and physical space—to individually take steps toward liberation, while adding to the social phenomenon of second-wave feminism. Through this analysis the following question is addressed: how, and why, did the female media makers of the women’s liberation movement and sexual revolution implement both film and video to challenge social constructions and ideas regarding femininity, domesticity, and sexuality? The textual analysis performed in relation to this research question is rooted in cultural materialism and takes historical, economic, and cultural factors into account.

With the short film, Jugular Region, I intended to cross over to the narrative world of filmmaking by developing an idea in sync with experimental filmmaking, special effect makeup and the body-horror genre. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to expose how, by using an original body-horror genre screenplay as a platform to gather imagery, I was able to fully develop the verisimilitude of the film through SFX makeup and a surrealist editing style. This paper is also dedicated to the step-by-step thought process and my artistic practice that led to the creation of this unique filmic universe.