Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power

Once you see this movie, you can't unsee what it clearly demonstrates.

Brainwashed is a giant step in bringing awareness to the subtle and not-so-subtle ways women are treated as second class citizens through cinematic process and technique. Brainwashed shows how consistent camera angles, lighting, and other shot design elements are applied exclusively to women, such that women are almost exclusively presented as objects of other's (men's mostly) desires rather than as their own subjects in the characters they portray.

This below awareness process inculcates patriarchal codes! "If the camera is predatory, then the culture is predatory."

This is a meta-level awareness game changer of a film! Must see!

Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power i s documentary that focuses on the male perspective to which becomes the narrative on 95-98 % of all films made. By men, seen by men and women seen as a object.

As a male I must say I am kinda baffled that I haven't seen that in all these movies. I have of course seen the obvious, but there's so many that I didn't see go into that narrative.

The fact that the male body is taboo in most movies, that you never see close up s of it i quite baffling.

A film to learn from, and be ashamed of, as a male? Yes, I'm sorry to say.

That is in fact the case. And it's really too much to handle.

We are almost always asked to see the male perspective, even in films made by women, because we are learned that's the way to do it.

Important stuff for any film school, and for any film buff.

Authors and guests dive deep into every aspect of film making and history, to find "patriarchal" elements. There are a lot of axioms, which are not defined, but can be perceived through their comments. For example, predatory behaviour comes from men and patriarchy. They set very clear divide between two sexes with many generalisations, which might be true(statistically speaking), but same people would never accept the same treatment if real statistics were used as counter arguments. It's the cat and mouse game between generalisation and specialisation. They usually take whatever suits them best, for a particular situation. Authors don't want to discover, research, learn. They want to impose, in a very "patriarchal" way. Here lies the ultimate truth. Within is the answer they refuse to accept. Every person is a microcosmos. A combination of the worst and the best humanity offers and everything in between. We are biologically separated by combination of X and Y chromosomes, that govern our physical traits but all other characteristics fall into a spectrum. Some are very common and some fall generally more on one side. None of them is inherently good or bad. It's all about the context. Even when we use archetypes from psychology, like "tyrannical father" and "devouring mother", gender is used just as a description, not a permanent label. A man can behave as a "devouring mother". It's sad to see all these accomplished and grown people not being able to behave as adults.

Film maker Nina Menkes delivers a lecture to film students etc advocating that the way films are made and specifically how camera shots of women are composed are still inherently objectifying women such that it is illegal / discriminatory. This is backed up by the analysis of many clips by many different women.

It has been said that you are not going to look at films the same way after this and that's probably true. Mendes puts forward strong, pretty much undeniable arguments to support her point and it is astounding to appreciate that this goes on - although I'm not sure the points she's making works convincingly with every clip. What's more worrying is that Hollywood is still a bastion of male film making with very few women film makers out there and with most men portraying women in a very specific objective and rather offensive way. Not a riveting documentary, but a good argument which like all such cases won't convince everyone - although I'm not sure why. My one complaint is that no one from the 'industry' is in attendance and not a single male to either argue or concede the point.

This is a must watch film. It is raw, honest and critically important. BRAINwASHED creates a much needed awareness in the film industry and describes how camera angle and other filmmaking elements contributes to issues that effect women: sexualization, employment discrimination and even the rape culture that sadly exists in our society. A must watch!

This is especially important for the younger generation of film makers, as they are the ones who can truly make a difference and show that it is possible to choose differently when filming the female body in a way that is engaging but not sexualizing.