Through Her Lens: 2013 (The 86th Oscars)
Monday, July 4, 2022 at 5:00PM A series by Juan Carlos Ojano. Introduction / Explanation
Steve McQueen became the first Black director to helm a Best Picture winner for 12 Years a Slave (2013), telling the harrowing story of African-American freeman Solomon Northup who was kidnapped in 1841 and was sold to slavery. McQueen also became the first Black producer to receive a Best Picture award. Meanwhile, the film’s biggest competition was Gravity, a science fiction-thriller film set in space. Winning seven Oscars, the film was directed by Alfonso Cuarón, becoming the first Latin American to win the Best Director Oscar.
While having these two films as frontrunners is a win for representation at the Oscars, female directors were still left out of the conversation for majority of the awards season. Out of the 289 films included in the Reminder List of Eligible Films in 2013 (86th Academy Awards), only 32* (11.1%) were directed/co-directed by women...
OSCAR-NOMINATED FEMALE-DIRECTED FILMS (in alphabetical order): Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?*, Frozen, Get a Horse*, Karama Has No Walls*, The Square (*not in the eligibility list for Best Picture)
Sofia Coppola - The Bling Ring
Bouncing burglars are at the center of Coppola’s satire about teenage obsession for fame and decadence. With hip music, lavish production design, and puerile euphoria, we are thrown right in the middle of the glorious discovery of celebrity houses by the titular gang. And yet, there is always something amiss about these initially playful scenes. Whether the framing is slightly off-center, shot lingers for a bit too long, or the rhythm of the actors slowly shift from carefree to threatening, Coppola makes a point to not reduce these scenes into a condoning display of privilege. Slowly, she unmasks these scenes to display an ugly undercurrent of condemnation. In the superficiality, the film digs deeper. This gives teeth to the film’s commentary, one that does not shy away from its perceived limitations in viewpoint but is aware of it and subverts it with sharp timing. Streaming on Showtime, Hoopla, Kanopy, DirecTV, and Lifetime Movie Club.
Rama Burshtein - Fill the Void
Does an individual in a tightly knit community have true freedom? One could ask that question while watching Burshtein’s depiction of an 18-year-old woman’s place in Haredi Judaism. Protagonist Shira finds herself pressured to marry her sister’s husband after dying from childbirth. Burshtein finds the complexities of her disposition through pervading confinement. Shots are made to feel a constriction in space. Whether it be doors, walls, windows, or other characters foregrounded, Shira’s world feels like it is imposing itself onto her. And yet, we also see her gradually gaining agency in her decision-making. It is in the negotiation between self and nature that makes for a complex study of Shira. Even when she is asserting herself, is she ever really capable of making decisions for herself? Burshtein asks us that question until the final shot. Available to rent on most services.
Margarethe von Trotta - Hannah Arendt
Legendary director von Trotta takes on the challenge of tackling the titular political theorist’s complicated legacy. Set during the 1961 trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann, the film examines how Arendt studied the man’s involvement in the wartime atrocities. Despite the subject matter, von Trotta thwarts sensationalist drama for a more understated approach, even verging on clinical. Making her work unglamorous and as matter-of-fact as possible allows the audience to have more active engagement in investigating Arendt. The visual distance between our point-of-view and Arendt as depicted on screen invites us not to be passive spectators, but as participants in her discourse. Whether we concur with her thesis or not, we are enjoined to engage. Not relying on easy emotional manipulation makes Arendt a more fascinating subject. With assured filmmaking, von Trotta knows exactly how to bring that to life. Available to rent on iTunes and Kino Now.
Cate Shortland - Lore
Seen through the eyes of a German teenage girl, the film follows her as she was left to fend for her siblings at the end of World War II. Shortland brings us close to her through sensorial stimulation. Immersive soundscape and intimate imagery make her world intensely tactile. There is no such thing as a misplaced shot in this film - glue sticking to her fingers, ants crawling on a corpse, milk spilling on the ground. With a character having a questionable moral compass, one might have a struggle wanting to understand the titular protagonist. But with Shortland’s vision of her experience, we are allowed to access Lore’s perspective. The film is not interested in rash judgment but in tracing her change of heart through incisive observation. Shortland treats Lore’s journey not as a historical artifact, but as a searing reminder of how survival is made in the smallest of human moments. Streaming on Amazon Prime, Hoopla, Tubi TV, Kanopy, OVID, and Fandor.
Jehane Noujaim - The Square
Revolutions are fueled with desire for change, but the said aspiration is almost never linear. In this searing documentary, Noujaim immerses the audience right into the epicenter of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. With intimate footage of protesters at ground zero, the film shows the multifaceted humanity that composed this massive political movement. Vivid images of the protests paint a larger picture that is vivid and hopeful. However, fighting back is not without consequence. Visceral footage showing vicious dispersals of protests as well as other police brutalities are captured with unflinching proximity. But Noujaim also depicts her empathy through restraint; none of the footage showing state-sponsored violence feel exploitative or gratuitous. Instead, the film focuses on the conflicting aftermath of the events that transpired. This is an electrifying encapsulation of a historical revolution. Streaming on Netflix, Tubi TV, Kanopy, and Film Movement Plus.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
- Alice Winocour - Augustine
- Nicole Holofcener - Enough Said
- Lake Bell - In a World…
- Susanne Bier - Love is All you Need
- Haifaa al-Mansour - Wadjda
What would your dream director ballot look like from 2013?
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Reader Comments (3)
Definitely Coppola should have been there. TBR is an under-rated masterpiece, up there with her best (THE VIRGIN SUICIDES and THE BEGUILED). She should have replaced either David O Russell or Martin Scorsese (both there because of lazy voters ticking off familiar names for lesser movies of theirs).
This is a lovely piece, Juan Carlos. I'm really glad to see this series pop up again! Coppola would've been a wonderful nominee, in both the Director category and the none-too-exciting Adapted Screenplay race. Clio Bernard for The Selfish Giant would've been immensely deserving, though of course that was a million miles from Oscar's radar. I always forget Greta Gerwig didn't officially direct Frances Ha, otherwise I'd pitch her here too.
The decision to snub Jennifer Lee as one of the ten finest female filmmakers of 2013 just doesn’t sit well. Lee co-directed, co-produced, and wrote the year’s highest grossing film (a whooping $1.2 billion). Lee, also the chief creative officer at Disney, was responsible for Frozen, a story of not one but two strong, vibrant women.