“No one wants to be reduced to their gender – and women have a lot of experience in this regard”
– The German helmer, who is one of the talents in German Films’ Face to Face campaign, breaks down her documentary and what it means to be a woman filmmaker
(© Marcus Hoehn)
German director Isa Willinger is part of this year’s Face to Face campaign, which is being presented by German Films at the imminent Berlinale (12-22 February). We spoke to her about her newest documentary, No Mercy [+see also:
film review
interview: Isa Willinger
film profile], and what it means to be a woman filmmaker.
Cineuropa: No Mercy examines what it means when women make films. Did you recognise yourself in the accounts given by the directors?
Isa Willinger: Yes, No Mercy addresses what it means to be a woman in this world, alongside the images that have been produced of women, and in that sense, I can relate to everything that is said in the film. When it comes to the actual practices of documentary filmmaking, however, the situation is fundamentally different. It doesn’t have the same rigid hierarchies as fiction filmmaking. Fiction film crews are much more hierarchically structured, and unpleasant things have often happened there. That is slowly changing, as there is now greater awareness of abuse of power, psychological violence and how actors should be treated. But in documentary work, you have to be sensitive from the very beginning. You are filming people who are not professionals. In order to create openness, you yourself have to be open and permeable. You can’t shout at or boss around your team – that would be a complete contradiction.
Did you have any specific motivation to make the film?
I’ve been interested in feminist film language and the work of female directors for about 20 years. At the same time, there are many issues I’m interested in. I can’t stay with only one topic across several films – it would feel too much like tunnel vision. It was more by chance that I came across it again. One of the triggers was Mark Cousins‘ Women Make Film [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – a 12-hour essay consisting solely of film clips by female directors. I thought: “It’s great that this has been made. But why don’t these female directors get to have their say?” This gave rise to the need to give them a voice.
Were all of the women you approached open to the project?
I often encountered great openness among female directors from the older generation. It was more difficult with the younger and middle generations. The label “women’s film” or “film only with female directors” opens up a pigeonhole that feels overly narrow. No one wants to be reduced to their gender – and women have a lot of experience in this regard. In addition, female directors are used to being behind the camera and being in control. Handing over this control to another filmmaker is not easy for everyone.
Many female directors discuss their own experiences of violence, some of which they also process in their films. The movie also raises the question of whether images of violence themselves spawn violence.
One director, Marzieh Meshkini, states that images of violence lead to more violence. Others, such as Virginie Despentes, speak of a cathartic effect: violence in films can be liberating, especially for women who have experienced it or who live under constant threat. I think both are right; it’s not black and white. It depends very much on the individual film: how intelligently is it made? What images does it create overall? Whose perspective does it show? What expectations does it rupture? Does it give strength – or take it away?
What does honesty mean to you in documentary filmmaking?
In documentary filmmaking, authenticity is really the highest value you can have. Being allowed to look into real lives, into real people who exist, and to experience their openness – that’s something incredibly powerful. For the protagonists, opening up, sharing their story, making themselves vulnerable – and for us, as spectators, being allowed to accompany them – is an enormous gift.
How can a female documentary filmmaker actively confront the male gaze?
First, we need to ask what we mean by “the male gaze”. A film is never made by one person alone – there’s a writer, a director, a cinematographer – and all these perspectives come together. That said, I’ve definitely experienced situations where a cameraman instinctively chose very typical male-gaze framings. For example, when filming highly sexualised robotic bodies for my film Hi, A.I. [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], it was extremely important to me that they weren’t shot as flat objects. In the end, what matters most is having a sensitive person behind the camera, and in Hi, A.I., this happened to be a guy. We grew up with gendered images, but we can reflect on them and overcome them, all of us – although it is, of course, still important to actively support women, especially in positions like cinematography or directing, where they often have a harder time.
On No Mercy, you worked with a predominantly female team. Was that a conscious decision?
It was a conscious choice and, in a way, also an experiment. We wanted to see what happens when you work with as many women as possible, which isn’t always easy in every department – colour grading or sound mixing, for example. But it was important to us as a statement and, of course, because we wanted the perspectives within the team to resonate with the film’s themes.
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