Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power

Engaging with women and non-binary people across the film sector, Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power brilliantly explores the male gaze in cinema. Adapted from a lecture given by filmmaker Nina Menkes, this powerful documentary dissects the elements that contribute to the objectification of women by the camera, and the audience by extension. Menkes constructs the history of cinema, using more than 80 film clips from 1896 to 2020, centering the role of women on and off-screen and, accompanied by personal stories from actors, filmmakers, cinematographers and theorists, demonstrates the power of cinema in perpetuating sexism. The on-screen depiction of women as an object to gaze on by the male subject and audience is inextricable from the prevalence of sexual violence and unequal employment opportunities in Hollywood. As so many of the important discussions from the #MeToo era emerged from Hollywood, the film aims to continue this critical engagement while offering viewers the tools to view and revisit cinema through a feminist lens.