Weedling is an 18-minute magic realist narrative short film that investigates themes of male perpetrated violence against women and children, queer sexuality, gender nonconformity and biophilia without falling into gendered cinema tropes of showing a woman in fear. The narrative portrays Alix, a gender non-conforming teenager who steals their father's car to save their spirit plant and themselves from an unsafe home, at the risk of leaving their mother who can't protect them.
NTRO Output Type
- Recorded or Rendered Work
NTRO Output Category
- Recorded or Rendered Work : Audio / visual recording
Place
Melbourne, AustraliaVenue
The Capitol Cinema, MelbourneNTRO Publisher
Black Eye Films, https://www.blackeyefilms.com.au/cms-film/weedling.phpsMedium
Short FilmResearch Statement
This research challenges damaging depictions of domestic violence by dissecting the male gaze's influence and developing feminist filmmaking strategies, avoiding gendered stereotypes.
This film depicts family violence without on-screen violence, emphasizing interspecies connections beyond heteronormativity. It enriches screen discourse by promoting diverse stories, representing sexual, cultural, and gender diversity. This work challenges prevailing depictions of violence, advocating for hope and a queer utopia, provoking new thoughts on screen narratives.
The significance of this research is within both the film narrative and the production process. The film narrative contributes to concepts of depicting male violence toward women and queer people, and diverse and queer representations on screen. The production of the film offers new methodologies around drawing from phenomenology, iterative production filmed over a protracted time and COVID restriction processes to create a safe and ethical work.
Its value is attested to by the following:
• outcome of a competitively funded VCA Engagement Grant
• Finalist Best Film/Director 33rd Melbourne Queer Film Festival
• Winner Best Drama New Wave Short Film Festival Munich
• in-kind support from professional screen industry, VCA practitioners, students & alumniSize or Duration of Work
18 minute short filmAffiliation
Angie Black, University of Melbourne and Black Eye Films
