Calm The F**K Down

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posted on 2025-04-04, 00:20 authored by HELEN GAYNORHELEN GAYNOR

CALM THE F**K DOWN RESEARCH STATEMENT: Dr Helen Gaynor

THE RESEARCH QUESTION

Exploring a documentary approach to the topic of male violence against women and children, within the ethics approval environment of the academy

BACKGROUND TO THE RESEARCH QUESTION

This project has been developed from research generated by a 2020 faculty engagement grant received by myself and VCA FTV colleagues Dr Angie Black and Siobhan Jackson. The applicants had been affected by male violence against women and children and wanted to explore a feminist filmmaker response to it. In this research grant collaboration, the question was raised - why? What is going on in the minds of the men who commit acts of violence against those they purport to love?

METHODOLOGY

This project applies a Creative Practice Research methodology.

RESEARCH & CREATIVE PROCESS

My response to this query as a documentary filmmaker was to film with perpetrators. However, in discussion with my colleagues it became clear that the ethics environment and requirements within the academy made approval for this approach highly unlikely. Working with actors as a response became an option that led to the notion of putting the male perpetrator experience in the female body.

This developed into a collaboration with theatre maker Penelope Bartlau, to develop a performance-based exploration that was also to be filmed as a documentary.

RESEARCH STAGES

1) CONSULTATION/LITERATURE REVIEW with key organisations, experts, researchers, and practitioners in the Family Violence and Men’s behaviour change sectors.

2) DEVELOPMENT/Planning of Creative process in response to the research material, which resulted in the design of a three-day workshop with four female actors, to be directed by Penelope Bartlau and filmed by me.

3) APPLICATION OF PROCESS was through the filming, delivery and completion of the 3-day workshop.

4) THE FINAL OUTCOME is an edited stand-alone 40-minute documentary.

DISCUSSION

What happens in the articulation of the male voice in perpetration of male violence against women and children when it is embodied by actors and in the female form?

What does the process of the female actor embodiment as a way of 'seeing' this behaviour through a non-male lens bring to our understanding of the topic?

What does this approach bring to the application of documentary filmmaking to social and political enquiry in the academy?

IMPACT

The relevance and urgency of the project topic - male violence against women and children – are made clear in the findings of the Australia’s first Royal Commission into Family Violence, commissioned by the Victorian State Government and delivered in 2016¹. In 2024 the federal government declared violence against women and children a national emergency^[1].

My research indicates that there is little filmic or performative discourse that seeks to articulate the interior male voice – the perpetrator voice - on this issue. One example is the New Zealand feature film 'Once Were Warriors' (1994: Director Lee Tamahori)^[2] which provides an extremely powerful portrayal of male violence against women and children in a family setting that does provide a window into the world and mind of the perpetrator. Filmic treatments of this issue tend to explore the female experience. Some examples include the television series on SBS TV in 2021 based on Jessica Hills book on domestic abuse 'See What You Made Me Do'^[3] that emphasises the experience of women and children. A narrative fiction exploration of the theme, once again from the female perspective is 'A Question of Silence' (1982: Gorris.M)^[4] a 1982 Dutch drama film written and directed by Marleen Gorris, regarded as an 'art ' film and well received. The topic has moved to the more contemporary mainstream platform

Netflix with the series 'Big Little Lies' (Hello Sunshine 2017)^[5] which has a main story line through out of male violence against women and children, once again from the female perspective.

This project seeks to contribute to the public discourse, and fill this gap, by utilising a provocative performative approach - the embodiment of the male voice in the female form. One reference that provides some indication of the power of this approach is the recreation of Donald Trump's 'Access Hollywood' tape by comedian Sarah Cooper and actor Helen Mirren^[6]. By combining this approach with the tradition of observational documentary. the project aims to provoke a series of questions and insights.

What thought processes provoke a man to be violent toward those he purports to love?

What if women in everyday life behaved the way that the female actors in is this project do?

How much does society rely on women NOT behaving this way and how much does that give permission to men to engage in the violent behaviour?

The project also proposes a way through the ethics approval process of the academy for documentary filmmakers working with contentious topics and with vulnerable participants.

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Royal+Commission+into+Family+Violence,+co mmissioned+by+the+Victorian+State+Government&ie=UTF -8&oe=UTF -8

[1] https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/a -major -review -declares -family -violence -an -emergency -heres what -it -says -needs -to -change/z4ag5ttj3