From: Dara Greenwald (email suppressed)
Date: Fri Apr 23 2010 - 10:14:37 PDT
Magic Lantern Cinema Presents:
The Social Factory Show
curated by Dara Greenwald and Paige Sarlin
Wednesday April 28th, 2010
9:30 PM
Cable Car Cinema
204 S. Main St.
Providence, RI
Admission $5
Both curators will be present for post-screening discussion.
The Social Factory Show brings together documentaries that explore the
role of
women's work in the production of daily life under capitalism in three
different countries (US, Mexico, India). Employing vastly different
formal strategies, this class-conscious line-up confronts us with a
range of images and sounds that demonstrate what has and hasn't
changed over the last 40 years. This evening features an
important, but rarely screened, early collectively-made feminist
film, Woman's Film (1971), a film by Chick Strand, a central (but
under-recognized) figure in American Avant-Garde Film, and a recent
video that explores the effects of globalization by Sonali Gulati.
All of these documentaries offer complex portraits of women’s work and
illustrate cinema's ability to show us how our society is
produced and re-produced.
The idea of the "social factory" comes out of a group of Italian
autonomous Marxist and feminist thinkers who in the 1970's
analyzed the many forms of labor that contribute to the reproduction
of society both inside and outside of the traditional factory. The
analysis reflected on gendered divisions of labor in the social
factory in that women's work was most often unpaid and not recognized
as "work." These ideas set a framework for understanding the various
forms of free labor that maintain our social relations, our bodies,
feelings, and minds. Coming together to watch these pieces, we can
reflect on the persistence of these dynamics and what role cinema has
had and continues to have in provoking recognition through the
representation of difference.
TRT: 89 minutes
Featuring: Nalini By Day, Nancy by Night, Sonali Gulati
India/US, 2005, 27 minutes, DVD; Fake Fruit, Chick Strand
(US) 1986, 22 minutes; 16mm, color, sound; Woman's Film, Newsreel
(US) 1971, 40 minutes; shot on 16mm, shown on DVD.
Synopses:
Nalini By Day, Nancy by Night, Sonali Gulati
India/US, 2005, 27 minutes, DVD, distributed by Women Make Movies
"In this insightful documentary, filmmaker Sonali Gulati explores
complex issues of globalization, capitalism and identity through a
witty and personal account of her journey into India’s call centers.
Gulati, herself an Indian immigrant living in the US, explores the
fascinating ramifications of outsourcing telephone service jobs to
India—including how native telemarketers take on Western names and
accents to take calls from the US, UK and Australia.
A fresh juxtaposition of animation, archival footage, live action
shots and narrative work highlight the filmmaker’s presence and reveal
the performative aspects of her subjects. With fascinating
observations on how call centers affect the Indian culture and
economy, Nalini by Day, Nancy By Night, raises important questions
about the complicated consequences of globalization. " -Women Make
Movies
Fake Fruit, Chick Strand
(US) 1986, 22 minutes; 16mm, color, sound, distributed by Canyon Cinema
"Intimate documentary about young women who make papier mache fruit and
vegetables in a small factory in Mexico. They have a gringo boss, but
the factory is owned by his Mexican wife. The focus of the film is on
the color, music and movement involved, and the gossip which goes on
constantly, revealing what the young women think about men."—Chick
Strand
Woman's Film, Newsreel
(US) 1971, 40 minutes; shot on 16mm, shown on DVD, distributed by
Third World Newsreel
"The film was made entirely by women in San Francisco NEWSREEL. It was
a collective effort between the women behind the camera and those in
front of it. The script itself was written from preliminary interviews
with the women in the film. Their participation, their criticism, and
approval were sought at various stages of production." -TWN
"... What we see is not only natural and spontaneous, it is thoughtful
and beautiful. It is a film which immediately evokes the sights and
sounds and smells of working class kitchens, neighborhood streets,
local supermarkets, factories, cramped living rooms, dinners cooking,
diaper-washing, housecleaning, and all the other 'points of
production' and battlefronts where working class women in America
daily confront the realities of their oppression. It is . . . a
supremely optimistic statement, showing the sinews of struggle and
capturing the essential energy and collective spirit of all working
people-and especially that advanced consciousness which working class
women bring to the common struggle." -- Irwin Silber, Guardian
Sponsored by the Malcolm S. Forbes Center for Modern Culture and Media
of Brown University
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