Look back: Do girls come of age only to fall in love with boys?
Would I want my daughter to watch a film where women come of age and discover things other than love? Absolutely.
Author / Jaylan Salah
The Male Gaze in Arab Cinema: Youssef Chahine between Voyeuristic Pleasure and Male Exhibitionism
Introduction In her infamous essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, written decades ago, Laura Mulvey concluded that to absolve traditional, classical filmmaking of its masculinity and misogyny, one should annihilate voyeurism as one of the basic pleasures to be extracted from the narrative cinema. Mulvey’s […]
‘Clueless’ broke down barriers and paved the way for today’s comedies
At the end, “Clueless” is both reflective and ahead of its time. It implants the image of the modern woman of the nineties, rebelling against the clean-shaven stereotypical second-wave feminists and paving the way for women of the fourth-wave feminist, who unlike their predecessors were able to subvert the gaze completely by liberating from the gender and sexual spectrum. Despite resistance, the atmosphere right now is more welcoming than ever for a female-led comedy that does not fear the sexual power of its funny lead actress.
‘A League of Their Own’: The hero is the sidekick
I rooted for Kit, and even though I realized I really wanted the sisters to make up at the end, Marshall gave me that underdog I could not take my eyes off, one I would cheer for till the end credits. On this rare occasion, this underdog is a woman!
A Poem for the Mother
Illustration by Tavi Veraldi A Poem for the Mother Who lost her son… In a car crash In a dog fight Amid the dust mines of recessed memories A poem for the agony For the fear For the future Remembering to call her before you go to […]
‘Strong Island’: documentary filmmaking as a coming-of-age tale
It’s always the women, the queer, and the blacks. They are the ones who tell stories. They are the ones who dig deep into their families’ histories. They are the ones who try to uncover the truth and make amends with the past so they […]
Third world as we do not know it: why we need more Black Panthers that defy white patriarchy
Watching “Black Panther” has given me a similar experience, being from a country that most privileged nations deem “third world,” “regressed,” and “developing.” I belong to the same continent, if from a different sector with a different cultural backdrop and political history.