The Women’s Library Film Club this month features a film by Cate Shortland and one by So Yong Kim. Beautiful, thought-provoking films about women and girls, directed by women.
Sunday 5 September: Lore (2012) on ABC iView
Directed by: Cate Shortland, Australia
As the Allies sweep across Germany, Lore leads her siblings on a journey that exposes them to the truth of their parents’ beliefs and forces her to rely on a person she has always been taught to hate. (2012)
See Ella Taylor’s review on NPR or John Patterson’s in The Guardian …
Its lyrical beauty, its focus on children and its handheld camerawork by Adam Arkapaw feel far more French or Polish (see Wajda’s Ashes And Diamonds, set in the same few weeks). This links it up with a movie about a similar collapse when the jackboot was on the other foot, the catastrophic French defeat of 1940, René Clément’s 1952 masterpiece Jeux Interdits. Lore hasn’t the budget or the desire to paint that epic picture … but it instead works up a miniature of similar moments in a parallel sector of the dark vale of infancy.
Watch the film on ABC iView: Lore
Sunday 19 September: Lovesong (2016) on SBS on Demand
Directed by So Yong Kim, Korea, USA
Riley Keough stars in this powerful exploration of the blurred line between friendship and desire for two women. Neglected by her husband, Sarah embarks on an impromptu road trip with her young daughter and her best friend Mindy. Along the way, the dynamic between the two friends intensifies before circumstances force them apart. Years later, Sarah attempts to rebuild their intimate connection in the days before Mindy’s wedding.
From Justin Chang in Variety …
As is often the case with Kim’s films, it’s what she chooses to leave unspoken and undramatized that matters most, and in “Lovesong” she plays out this not-quite-romance with a hesitation and ambiguity that may well frustrate some audiences, particularly those unsure how to process a movie that’s in no hurry to dispel its emotional confusion.
Watch the film on SBS on Demand: Lovesong
Here’s how the Film Club works:
- You sign up to join the film club
- We add your name to the mailing list
- You watch the film any time before the Sunday discussion
- We send you a link to the discussion group
- You join the discussion on Sunday at 18:00
If you would like to become a member of The Women’s Library please complete a Membership Application and we will get back to you within a few days.
Image Credit: Still from Lore, directed by Cate Shortland