Papers by Orianna Calderón
Subverting technologies of gender in male-dominated gender regimes: (self) representations of Spanish and Swedish women filmmakers
Feminist Media Studies, 2022
This article analyses (self)representations of women filmmakers active in the Swedish and Spanish... more This article analyses (self)representations of women filmmakers active in the Swedish and Spanish film industries, looking at how “technologies of gender,” as theorised by Teresa de Lauretis, work to resist change within the industry’s “gender regimes” (as conceptualised by Raewyn Connell), but are also simultaneously reinvented by women film workers. Even though the gender regimes of Spain and Sweden are quite different, and despite the diversity of positions adopted by women film workers concerning cinema—as art, commodity, and socio-political technology—there are striking similarities in the obstacles faced by women in a male-dominated industry. We identify these similarities in a series of interviews with women filmmakers from both countries. What emerges as shared across both contexts is the ambivalent negotiation that women film workers have to carry out in their self-representations, when entering an industry built around a male norm. But along with these representations marked by the relation to patriarchal technologies of gender, many women creators also search for bottom-up narratives and appropriations of such technologies to construct themselves and their works outside and beyond the androcentric model of the current film industry.
Opposition to gender quotas in Sweden and Spain: Debates about gender equality in the film industry
Women's Studies International Forum
A diffractive analysis of documentary film No existimos: Making visible the invisible with an eccentric technology of gender
Sociología y tecnociencia: Revista digital de sociología del sistema tecnocientífico, 2021
Reading through one another insights raised by Teresa de Lauretis (1987; 1990), Donna Haraway (19... more Reading through one another insights raised by Teresa de Lauretis (1987; 1990), Donna Haraway (1988; 1992), Annette Kuhn (1994) and Karen Barad (2007), this article approaches feminist documentary cinema as diffraction apparatus and eccentric technology of gender. The article is divided into four sections. The first section follows Kuhn’s and de Lauretis’s definitions of cinema as technology of gender and of the subject of feminism as eccentric. We bring these ideas together with Barad’s and Haraway’s proposal of diffraction as an optical metaphor for the production of knowledges. In the second section we elaborate on what the application of a diffractive methodology to the analysis of documentary cinema would entail. We do so by putting forward three methodological tools: emotionality (Ahmed 2014), materiality (Olivieri, 2012), and performativity (Bruzzi, 2000; Butler, 1990, 1993, 2015; Barad, 2007). In the third section we apply this to the discussion of Spanish documentary No Existimos (Solano, 2014). We conclude by summarising how the diffractive and eccentric paradigms can contribute to a better understanding of the possibilities of feminist documentary cinema for co-creating and re-making the world.
Resisting Cultures of Inequality through Feminist Counter-Visuality Practices in Contemporary Spanish Fiction and Non-Fiction Cinema
Investigating Cultures of Equality, 2022
Gender-Based Violence and the Performance of Masculinity
Performing Cultures of Equality, 2022
El articulo analiza la novela L’Amant (1984) de Marguerite Duras, desde una perspectiva feminista... more El articulo analiza la novela L’Amant (1984) de Marguerite Duras, desde una perspectiva feminista interseccional. Respecto al contenido del libro, se explora el papel que las categorias raza, genero, edad y clase social juegan en las relaciones de poder que la protagonista-narradora sostiene, tanto con su amante como con su familia. Tambien se aborda la sexualidad femenina transgresora a partir de lo que esta desencadena en la protagonista y su entorno; las ambiguedades de la relacion entre madre e hija; y la confrontacion de un modelo de masculinidad hegemonica con masculinidades marginales. En cuanto a la forma de la novela, se revisan elementos que subvierten las convenciones de la autobiografia, por ejemplo, el paso de primera a tercera persona; el predominio de la descripcion de acciones en vez de dialogos; y la primacia de imagenes clave y silencios respecto a explicaciones contextuales. Finalmente, se plantea que la conciencia de si misma como sujeto deseante es, para la narr...
Visualising In/Equalities through Contemporary Documentary Cinema. A Diffractive Reading of Feminist Practices in Spanish and Italian Non-Fiction Films
This thesis brings together feminist documentary film theory and feminist new materialism(s) to d... more This thesis brings together feminist documentary film theory and feminist new materialism(s) to describe how feminist material-discursive practices in a sample of Spanish and Italian documentary cinema made between 2013-2018 (can) visualise gender in/equalities. The accomplished objectives have been: 1. Building a bridge between feminist documentary film theory and Karen Barad’s diffractive methodology by approaching non-fiction cinema that deals with social inequalities as a diffraction apparatus. 2. Developing a feminist toolbox for a response-able gaze by gathering different insights from feminist film theory. 3. Identifying feminist material-discursive practices in a sample of documentary films produced in Spain and Italy over the last six years (2013-2018). 4. Analysing the effects that these feminist material-discursive practices in documentary cinema have, particularly in terms of visualising gender in/equalities on both sides of the camera and on both sides of the screen. 5....
La teoria feminista del cine se desarrolla en la decada de los setenta, con el objetivo de visibi... more La teoria feminista del cine se desarrolla en la decada de los setenta, con el objetivo de visibilizar los silencios y contradicciones en torno a la construccion de las representaciones de feminidad y masculinidad en los textos filmicos, asi como en el contexto donde se generan dichos textos (produccion, distribucion y exhibicion de los discursos cinematograf icos). Junto a la critica y la deconstruccion de discursos androcentricos, el estudio del cine desde una perspectiva feminista se propone construir alternativas para la manifestacion de subjetividades y placer visual, fuera de las estrategias del cine clasico. En este senti do, se interesa por el cine feminista hecho por mujeres, mismo que ha tomado dos direcciones: el documental realista y el anti-cine feminista. En el caso del documental, tras la critica al realismo que mantiene la transparencia de la representacion sin cuestionarla, se ha dado un giro subjetivo que reconoce la mirada de la realizadora. En Mexico, el document...
International Journal of Cultural Policy, 2021
Over the last decade, gender equality measures like positive actions in public funding have been ... more Over the last decade, gender equality measures like positive actions in public funding have been implemented in the Spanish film industry. This article discusses these measures by looking at both the gender order that has been embedded in the Spanish film governance regime since its origins and the ways in which such gender order re-emerges in the current context as expressed by women film workers. Two persistent prejudices that can be traced back to Franco's dictatorship are identified: Public funding as connected to censorship and/or lack of profitability, and the representation of women as incapable members of a so-called 'minority' that has to be assisted. Concrete measures including quotas are necessary for adjusting the unbalance in women's participation, but they are means towards an end that goes beyond quantitative changes, for the ultimate goal would entail transforming the structure of a patriarchal film governance regime from a bottom-up feminist approach.
This thesis analyzes films by Alina Marazzi (1964, Italy) and Maricarmen de Lara (1957, Mexico) w... more This thesis analyzes films by Alina Marazzi (1964, Italy) and Maricarmen de Lara (1957, Mexico) within the context of the debate on cinematic realism and formal experimentation in feminist documentary films. The hypothesis is that feminist aspects in No les pedimos un viaje a la luna (1986) and ¿Más vale maña que fuerza? (2007) by Maricarmen de Lara, as well as in Un'ora sola ti vorrei (2002) and Vogliamo anche le rose (2007) by Alina Marazzi, emerge at four paradigms (form, content, production and reception), which are characterised by an understanding of objectivity as situated knowledge that allows the filmmakers to be accountable for their creative treatments of reality and the development of a subversive narrative cinema, in which the filmed women are (auto)represented in-and-out of gender. The selection of two filmmakers whose styles are different (observationalparticipatory realistic documentary with a political inclination on the one hand, reflexiveperformative documentary with an experimental inclination on the other hand), aims to bring into dialogue two streams that most feminist film theorists in the Seventies considered incompatible with each other. By adopting the perspective of situated knowledges (Haraway), I propose an alternative to the dichotomous view that tends to contrast and rank different approaches. Replacing the split between subject and object with the principle that the personal/private is political/public, I analyze Maricarmen's and Alina's films as inseparable from who they are/have been as gendered subjects that, on approaching feminism, work in a space in-and-out of gender where the contradictions between "the Woman" and women become evident. Their feminist cinema exploits the strategies of classic and/or narrative documentary "with a vengeance" (Lauretis): it exposes the inequities caused by androcentrism and becomes a vehicle for the expression of dissenting voices, rebellious bodies and self-conscious female subjects. 2.1.3 Del "Colectivo Cine Mujer" a la colaboración con grupos feministas mexicanos…………………………………………………………….. 40 2.1.4 Retos actuales para producir y distribuir cine documental feminista en México…………………………………………………………….. 47 2.2 No les pedimos un viaje a la luna (ópera prima, 1986)…………………… 52 2.2.1 Forma y contenido: del derrumbe a la autoconciencia………………. 53 2.2.2 Producción y recepción: estrategias ante la censura y la escasez de recursos……………………………………………………………….. 59 2.3 ¿Más vale maña que fuerza? (2007)……………………………………..... 61 2.3.1 Forma y contenido: voces de mujeres que cuestionan desde la cancha y el ring……………………………………………………………….. 62 2.3.2 Producción y recepción: un homenaje que detona debates………….... 72 Capítulo 3. El cine de Alina Marazzi. Documental feminista reflexivoperformativo como (re)visión de memoria, genealogías y modos de representación……………………………………………………………………. 75 3.1 Situación/Contextualización de la obra cinematográfica de Alina Marazzi…………………………………………………………………... 76 3.1.1 Pioneras del celuloide en Italia. El cine documental de Cecilia Mangini……………………………………………………………... 77 3.1.2 El "Colectivo de Cine Feminista" y el cine independiente italiano………………………………………………………………. 83 3.1.3 Documentales realizados por mujeres en el panorama actual del cine italiano………………………………………………………………. 86 3.1.4 Un cine de relaciones: la búsqueda de Alina Marazzi en el documental………………………………………………………….. 90 3.2 Un'ora sola ti vorrei (ópera prima, 2002)………………………………… 95 3.2.1 Forma y contenido: la carta imposible de Liseli a su hija…………...... 96 3.2.2 Producción y recepción: la restitución fílmica del orden simbólico de la madre………………………………………………………………. 109 3.3 Vogliamo anche le rose (2007)…………………………………………...... 111 3.3.1 Forma y contenido: Un collage documental sobre política sexual…… 112 3.3.2 Producción y recepción: re-conocer otras/nuestras versiones de la historia………………………………………………………………... 125
Studies in Documentary Film, 2020
In this article we analyse the Italian compilation films Un'ora sola ti vorrei (Alina Marazzi, 20... more In this article we analyse the Italian compilation films Un'ora sola ti vorrei (Alina Marazzi, 2002) and Pays Barbare (Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi, 2013) as examples, respectively, of feminist counter-cinema and decolonial countervisuality working with and against audiovisual archives. By means of a close-reading of the two films from an intersectional feminist perspective, we discuss: on the one hand, the ways in which Marazzi contests the rigid gender performativity of home movies, by restituting her mother's memory and exposing her sense of discomfort; on the other hand, the strategies employed by Gianikian and Ricci Lucchi in their dismantling of the sexism and racism of the colonial archive, while also warning about the fascist past haunting the present.
Comunicación y Género, 2020
This article analyses the ways in which Italian filmmaker Simone Cangelosi enacts a queer counter... more This article analyses the ways in which Italian filmmaker Simone Cangelosi enacts a queer countervisuality in his documentary films Dalla testa ai piedi (2007) and Una nobile rivoluzione (2014). The theoretical framework traces a genealogy from what has been termed as fe/male gazes up to what can be understood as transgender, queer and feminist gazes. Connections between the performative mode of representation, performative documentary cinema and gender performativity are also established. By means of a close reading of both films and an interview with the filmmaker, this paper argues that queer ways of seeing in documentary cinema cannot only depict existing realities but also put forward other ways of being, becoming and collectively enacting the right to appear.
Opposition to gender quotas in Sweden and Spain: Debates about gender equality in the film industry
Women's Studies International Forum, 2022
Implementing gender equality policies in the Spanish film industry: persistent prejudices and a feminist will to ‘exploit the centre into concentric circles’
International Journal of Cultural Policy, 2021
Over the last decade, gender equality measures like positive actions in public funding have been ... more Over the last decade, gender equality measures like positive actions in public funding have been implemented in the Spanish film industry. This article discusses these measures by looking at both the gender order that has been embedded in the Spanish film governance regime since its origins and the ways in which such gender order re-emerges in the current context as expressed by women film workers. Two persistent prejudices that can be traced back to Franco’s dictatorship are identified: Public funding as connected to censorship and/or lack of profitability, and the representation of women as incapable members of a so-called ‘minority’ that has to be assisted. Concrete measures including quotas are necessary for adjusting the unbalance in women’s participation, but they are means towards an end that goes beyond quantitative changes, for the ultimate goal would entail transforming the structure of a patriarchal film governance regime from a bottom-up feminist approach.
Feminist Media Studies, 2017
Following Karen Barad's diffractive methodology, we encounter feminist documentary cinema as a di... more Following Karen Barad's diffractive methodology, we encounter feminist documentary cinema as a diffraction apparatus: that is, as technologies that make part of the world intelligible to another part of the world in specific ways, by means of intra-actions between human and non-human agencies and objects of observation. We propose three analytical tools: materiality, emotionality, and performativity. In this article, we analyse two Spanish documentary films that render visible the potential of feminist documentary cinema for building alliances from and against precarity: Cuidado, resbala and Yes, We Fuck! Reading the insights and patterns raised in each case study through one another (i.e., diffractively), we discuss the intra-actions by which each of these films participates in co-creating the real. We end up describing three possible effects of feminist material-discursive practices in documentary cinema.
A Diffractive Analysis of Documentary Film No existimos: Making Visible the Invisible with an Eccentric Technology of Gender
Sociología y tecnociencia, 2021
Reading through one another insights raised by Teresa de Lauretis (1987; 1990), Donna Harawa... more Reading through one another insights raised by Teresa de Lauretis (1987; 1990), Donna Haraway (1988; 1992), Annette Kuhn (1994) and Karen Barad (2007), this article approaches feminist documentary cinema as diffraction apparatus and eccentric technology of gender. The article is divided into four sections. The first section follows Kuhn’s and de Lauretis’s definitions of cinema as technology of gender and of the subject of feminism as eccentric. We bring these ideas together with Barad’s and Haraway’s proposal of diffraction as an optical metaphor for the production of knowledges. In the second section we elaborate on what the application of a diffractive methodology to the analysis of documentary cinema would entail. We do so by putting forward three methodological tools: emotionality (Ahmed 2014), materiality (Olivieri, 2012), and performativity (Bruzzi, 2000; Butler, 1990, 1993, 2015; Barad, 2007). In the third section we apply this to the discussion of Spanish documentary No Existimos (Solano, 2014). We conclude by summarising how the diffractive and eccentric paradigms can contribute to a better understanding of the possibilities of feminist documentary cinema for co-creating and re-making the world.
Feminist counter-cinema and decolonial countervisuality: subversions of audiovisual archives in Un’ora sola ti vorrei (2002) and Pays Barbare (2013)
Studies in Documentary Film, 2021
In this article we analyse the Italian compilation films Un’ora sola ti vorrei (Alina Marazzi, 20... more In this article we analyse the Italian compilation films Un’ora sola ti vorrei (Alina Marazzi, 2002) and Pays Barbare (Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi, 2013) as examples, respectively, of feminist counter-cinema and decolonial countervisuality working with and against audiovisual archives. By means of a close-reading of the two films from an intersectional feminist perspective, we discuss: on the one hand, the ways in which Marazzi contests the rigid gender performativity of home movies, by restituting her mother’s memory and exposing her sense of discomfort; on the other hand, the strategies employed by Gianikian and Ricci Lucchi in their dismantling of the sexism and racism of the colonial archive, while also warning about the fascist past haunting the present.
Queer Gender Performativity in Documentary Cinema: The Transgender Look of Italian Filmmaker Simone Cangelosi
Comunicación y Género, 2020
Este artículo analiza la forma en la que la contravisualidad queer del cineasta italiano Simone C... more Este artículo analiza la forma en la que la contravisualidad queer del cineasta italiano Simone Cangelosi opera en sus documentales Dalla testa ai piedi (2007) y Una nobile rivoluzione (2014). El marco teórico traza una genealogía desde las llamadas miradas masculina y femenina, hasta las miradas transgénero, queer y feministas. También se establecen conexiones entre el modo de representación performativo, el cine documental performativo y la performatividad de género. Mediante una lectura detallada de las dos películas y una entrevista con el cineasta, este artículo argumenta que en el cine documental una manera queer de ver puede representar no sólo realidades existentes sino también otras formas de ser, de convertirse y de ejercer colectivamente el derecho a aparecer.
Social Sciences, 2019
Following Karen Barad's diffractive methodology, we encounter feminist documentary cinema as a di... more Following Karen Barad's diffractive methodology, we encounter feminist documentary cinema as a diffraction apparatus: that is, as technologies that make part of the world intelligible to another part of the world in specific ways, by means of intra-actions between human and non-human agencies and objects of observation. We propose three analytical tools: materiality, emotionality, and performativity. In this article, we analyse two Spanish documentary films that render visible the potential of feminist documentary cinema for building alliances from and against precarity: Cuidado, resbala and Yes, We Fuck! Reading the insights and patterns raised in each case study through one another (i.e., diffractively), we discuss the intra-actions by which each of these films participates in co-creating the real. We end up describing three possible effects of feminist material-discursive practices in documentary cinema.
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Papers by Orianna Calderón