Director: Paulina Tervo; Write This Down Productions; Supported by: Pathways of Women’s Empowerment Consortium.13 mins. 2009.
Page Content Menu
Synopsis
A cab driver, police officer, mechanic and filmmaker, this film tells four unusual stories from Palestine featuring women who work in jobs that are conventionally associated with men. All four women have the courage to break customary rules, but not without challenges.
Screening Schedule
11 April 2010: 18:00-20:00
AUC New Campus, Core Academic Center, C205
About the film
It is often argued that “women’s work” remains to be viewed as less-valuable and less-productive in comparison to work typically allocated to men. For example, in her classic essay, “Violence Against Women and the Ongoing Primitive Accumulation of Capital” (1999), Maria Mies suggests that capitalist concepts of “economy” exclude definitions of housework and childrearing from the category of “productive labour”, and thus reduces women to units of economic liability (159). She argues that if we eliminate the separation between “productive” and “non-productive” work, we will see that, “in fact, more men depend on women’s work than do women on a male “breadwinner” (160).
To expand this discussion, what happens when women do take on male-dominated occupations? How is their productivity valued then? Are economic relations so pervasively gendered to the extent that we can only understand these workers as “masculine” women? Or may gender binaries erupt, opening up new possibilities for women to be valued not in comparison to men, but in terms of their own significance? In her short documentary film, Thorns and Silk (2009), Paulina Tervo confronts challenges women face working in “masculine” jobs with a new and positive light. Their stories are told in an optimistic way that plays off of conventionally masculine/feminine terms. For example, we see images of the female police officer marching in unison with her comrades then juxtaposed by her mirror reflection carefully applying lipstick and mascara. Or the independent wedding filmmaker, who states that it’s in her “nature to choose the difficult path.” If you asked her “to choose between thorns or silk, [she'd] choose thorns”. Such representations of these women as powerful women not only offers an alternative to the typical image of Palestinian women as oppressed; they also defy sexist arguments that females are some how “naturally” inferior to males, hence reduced to non-productive entities.
In an interview with Tervo, we discussed why it is important to represent these womens’ stories in documentary film, and discussed the role that film can play to create positive social change. An abridged transcript follows each audio file.
To begin, Tervo answers why she feels it is important to show women working in jobs typically allocated to men. She states that representing women in traditionally male roles is a powerful method to achieve equality between men and women.
PAULINA TERVO: I think it’s important to show women in male dominated jobs because they are often underrepresented in these areas. Also, in these jobs women can be ostracised and I think certain roles carry some stigma. For example, women who work in the police, I’ve noticed that you become one of the lads, like one of the guys. So your femininity disappears because you are working in the police…So basically, I think it is important to change this image in order not to keep women categorised in certain roles, or certain models. And I think the only way to achieve equality and to reduce sexism is to show women working in roles that are traditionally male. I think that these women in my film are actually great role models to other women who might be feeling like, “Oh, but I can’t go into that profession because I am a woman.” I think that they are role models, and it’s important to show role models, also, to younger women who might be considering new types of careers. Because times are changing. And I even think in the Middle East women are changing. And societies are changing and becoming more equal. Through film, you can do this by showing positive images of empowered women.
LARA: I felt that was why you chose to show her putting on her make-up…the police woman in particular. Because it is a very male, [an] incredibly “masculine” position that she’s put in. And she has to, sort of, prove her strength. And it seems like you nicely balanced that with her doing other very traditionally “feminine” things.
PAULINA TERVO: Yeah. And the fact that she can still be feminine. And she is very feminine, actually, even though she works in this very male world where she has to be equal with her male partners. So it doesn’t mean that she is less of a woman because she has that job.
I asked Tervo if she feels that her film is part of a women’s movement. She agreed that it is, but that this was not her intention in making the film.
“I think it is important to change this image in order not to keep women categorised in certain roles, or certain models. And I think the only way to achieve equality and to reduce sexism is to show women working in roles that are traditionally male.”
LARA: Would you consider this film a part of a women’s movement?
PAULINA TERVO: I guess I would. But when I started making this it never occurred to me, because I’m not an activist myself. I’m a filmmaker interested in people’s stories. I didn’t think that, “I’m going to make a film for women’s movement”. But, I think since I made the film, and what’s happened after the film, of where it’s gone, it’s shown, actually, to me that it is part of a larger movement. And I’ve realised more and more that film is a really powerful tool to use for activism, and for telling stories, and for changing media images. That’s, I think, what’s really been a great thing for me to realise as a filmmaker: that I can be a filmmaker and an activist at the same time.
Accompanying Thorns and Silk, Tervo recently made an “Extras” component which shows the film characters’ reactions to Thorns and Silk and how they felt about the way they were represented. I asked Tervo why she decided to make this “Extra” film. She responded by stating that she wanted to make visible the authoritative, transparent voice of objectivity often allocated to documentary film. Indeed, the cinematic narrative is not value-neutral, but always told from the point-of-view of the filmmaker.
PAULINA TERVO:Actually, that came about after my trip to the West Bank last year when I went there initially to organise out-reach screenings, to get audience reactions to it [Thorns and Silk]. And this was done again with support from IDS. So, when I was there for two weeks I gathered lots of opinions. I even showed the film to the [film] characters then and interviewed them. So it only came about afterwards when I started thinking that maybe the best thing to do with all this footage that I had is to make a second film and pull apart this idea that film is always about one person’s point of view. Especially documentaries are supposed to be so objective. They are supposed to be representing reality. So, I wanted to challenge this notion and highlight that it’s actually a subjective view. It’s always the filmmaker’s view about somebody else’s life. And I think that by actually making this film and giving the character in the film the opportunity to reflect upon how they were represented, kind of just turns the whole idea around about subjectivity and objectivity in film. Also, I think that the extra film made it more of a rounded view about each woman. In Thorns and Silk you see a little snippet from their lives. But in the other film [the Extras] you actually find out a lot more about their background and their context. So, I wanted to give that more rounded view.
The film industry is male-dominated. Therefore, I asked Tervo to explain what challenges or advantages she may have faced as a woman filmmaker.
PAULINA TERVO: A few years ago, when I started in the industry, I worked with some production companies. And I often found that all the female staff were basically employed in production roles rather than creative roles. It was always the men who were in the creative roles. And I found that slightly sexist, actually. It wasn’t just one place. It happened in many places. So, I think women are really under-represented in the film and TV industry even here in the UK. However, it has also had its advantages to being a young woman making films. Because often people don’t think that you are a filmmaker or a director. So you can get away with a bit more. You know, you can easily smuggle in cameras to countries that don’t like films being made there because you look so innocent. And also there are some funding and festivals available only for women nowadays. So I think it’s a positive thing as well that there are more film initiatives coming out. I think I found my niche. And I think it’s just more of an advantage at the moment for me being a woman making films about women’s empowerment. So, it has worked to my favour.
LARA: That’s interesting. It’s like taking the sexism, or assumptions of women, and turning it on its head to your own advantage, in a way.
PAULINA TERVO: Yes, in a way, I guess. I mean, I didn’t go the usual route in the industry by working my way up in production companies, because I realised quickly that, in order to do something creative, you really had to push very hard. And, you know, those roles were so male-dominated. So I decided to try different ways of doing what I wanted to do, which were maybe somewhat more unconventional. I think it’s about finding your niche and concentrating on that, whether you are a man or a woman. But, like I said, going to Palestine as a female filmmaker was much easier than I thought.
Film Screening Q&A
At the film screening, the audience talked with Tervo via Skype. Much of the discussion focused on the ways in which the Palestinian-Israeli conflict influenced the making of the film and how it framed audiences’ receptions. For example, Tervo explains that some of the strongest reactions against the film came from her screening event in Palestine, where many people felt that the film should have represented the conflict more. Meanwhile, some people at this film screening expressed that they liked that the conflict was not the main focus, but rather, that its politics were secondary to the recognition of these empowered women within extraordinary circumstances. An abridged transcript follows the audio file of the Q&A.
PAULINA TERVO: …So I’ve had a really good response from really diverse audiences. It’s been shown in Taiwan. It’s been shown in the US and in Canada, quite widely, and obviously in Europe. It’s been an ambition. But people have said to me that they don’t often see such stories coming out of Palestine and that they’ve been very pleasantly surprised of these types of films, and that there should perhaps be more films just looking at people’s lives, really.
LARA: Yeah, absolutely. I’m sure in any country you could make this film on non-conventional jobs for women and they’d all be very different. But there is something very special about the Palestinian context that makes this film very special I think.
EMMA: How did the conflict influence this project? Did you have any problems? Like at check points…
PAULINA TERVO: Yeah, of course it affects the making of it. The Israelis don’t really like it when you bring cameras into their country, and, you know, we got stopped in various places and questioned at the airport. Sometimes it was difficult at checkpoint, definitely. Of course, because of the checkpoints and the restrictions there it’s very difficult to travel. You get held up a lot, or there are road blocks sometimes that you are not expecting. So, these are things that impact. But it makes you realise that people are just living like that everyday. It’s their everyday life. And it’s just horrible. And you’re just there for two weeks-three weeks and it’s already frustrating in that period of time. So, it’s a small representation of what people actually go through there, with of course everything else.
So what were the reactions on your end? I’d be really interested to hear.
IAN: I really enjoyed the film. I thought it was interesting to see this group of women, like exactly as it was intended, you don’t normally get a chance to see in this context. Especially from a normal, everyday point of view, and not necessarily politically motivated or anything like that. It’s just people trying to live their lives. And it’s always important to see this amongst anything else that is going on.
KRISTINA: I think it’s interesting the way that the politics come through, even in just whatever any of these women are doing. You know, like when the cab driver said, “I feel as strong as this wall.” [Westbank Wall]. It’s just so interesting that it [Palestinian-Israeli politics] comes through even if that is not necessarily what you are focusing on. You were focusing on women and their occupation.
LARA: Right. Or how the police officer said she couldn’t perhaps take on Israelis as her customers [if she was a cab driver].
KRISTINA: Yeah, I think the interviews definitely add a lot to the film, just because…it’s really interesting to hear people reflecting on the way they are being perceived and represented, and adding to that. It just brings a whole dialogue that you don’t normally get with film, because it’s presented, then you see it, you share your opinions about it, or talk to the filmmaker, but not actually hear necessarily people within the film and their responses. So I thought it was a really nice addition.
IAN: I thought the extras were really good as well. I’d seen the film already. Seeing the extras today added a really good dimension to it. Especially with the military lady [police officer], who was kind of upset with the fact that her personality didn’t come through so much…
LARA: Oh right. With the make-up…
IAN: Yeah. I thought that was very interesting. But still, as Emma and I were discussing earlier, how in such a short segment for each lady it was able to purvey so much…it packed a lot of information into a very quick, short time, and it didn’t allow you to get too bored with long, drawn-out scenes…I think it’s a bit kinda ’sound-bite-ish’ to deliver information like that sometimes. But in this case it worked perfectly.
KRISTINA: I’m just wondering if you’ve had any really strong reactions, like Hannan’s, to the Westbank Map, and it being labelled Westbank instead of Palestine, if you got reactions like that at the screenings, or…?
PAULINA TERVO: She [Hannan] was actually the only person who mentioned that. Actually, no. There was one other girl who mentioned that in all of the screenings. But nobody else, sort of, said anything. That was something I really wasn’t anticipating. It was very interesting, actually, to go through that process for myself as well. To try to understand deeper what the conflict really means. And I felt quite bad after I’d shown Hannan and she started crying. And I just felt like … I’d been disrespectful…I just couldn’t anticipate this at all. But it’s interesting, because I asked other people, other Palestinians about it, and they said that they don’t mind ["Westbank" labeled on the map instead of "Palestine"] and they wouldn’t see it as a problem. So I guess it depends on how you’ve experienced your life within the conflict. So, that really only came from her. But I decided to make a point with the extras by changing the name on the map.
And the other thing I wanted to mention was a lot of people, especially strong women, said to me that I should have represented the conflict in the film. Especially with the taxi driver, they felt that I did touch upon the situation that is going on in Jerusalim. I didn’t explain it. And they didn’t like the film because of that. And they also felt that the taxi driver was too friendly with the Israeli customers. They felt it was a poor representation of the Palestinians. That was the film [screening event] with the strongest reactions, in Palestine. These comments came from the ministry of culture, came from women activist, and people like that. So, it was actually a difficult time for me to get the feedback. Interesting, but also quite difficult.
Audience Reactions
Presented below are a few audience reactions to Thorns and Silk.
Some people felt the film offered an alternative to typical representation of women in the Middle East. It not only presented these women as powerful, but also offered a variety of differences across and between women. Emma is a graduate student of the Cynthia Nelson Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies at AUC. Along with her academic work Emma manages her political blog, focusing on feminism, religion and international relations.
Others, such as Kristina and Ian, commented on the usefulness of the Extras. Both felt that reflections upon the representations of the characters themselves created a unique dialogue between the subjects, the filmmaker and audience that is not normally made available in film. Kristina Hallez is a communications officer at Social Research Center at AUC, and works on many projects for the Middle Eastern Hub of Pathways of Women’s Empowerment.
Others commented on the some of the creative visual techniques used.