<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There is no need to call on statistics to see that it is largely women who have to go naked in front of the camera, particularly for sex scenes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/h4>\n
Viola Shafik<\/h4>\n
<\/p>\n
One nice late afternoon on my way to this year\u2019s CINEMED<\/a> film festival in Montpellier, I found myself in front of closed doors. Security personnel had locked the festival\u2019s central site, the Corum. In front of the main entrance, a group of protesters had gathered, chanting, holding banners and distributing leaflets in the name of the Mouvement H\/F Occitanie LR<\/a>. With their intervention they wanted to draw moviegoers’ attention to a fact they considered unacceptable; namely, that the festival had invited the French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche (b. 1960) to run a masterclass at this year\u2019s edition:<\/p>\n
“We want to remind people that this director has been accused of sexual aggression.”<\/em><\/p>\n
What they hinted at was the case of a 29-year-old woman who had gone to the press in 2018. She had filed (in vain) a lawsuit against the director for sexual abuse but was belittled as a “person who did not find any other means to get herself known than attaining the status of a victim,\u201d according to the group\u2019s leaflet. The activists also asserted that in France only two percent of sexual aggression allegations are made on a false basis, while 90% of the cases get closed without further action. Blaming a cultural event such as the CINEMED for siding with the alleged perpetrator at the expense of women made sense, of course, particularly because the director had had other complaints lodged against him. Another Mouvement leaflet explained:<\/p>\n
\u201dThose who work in cinema, on film shoots, are familiar with Mr. AK\u2019s reputation. They know, as testified by the actresses with whom he worked but also the assistants and the technicians, and the service providers, that this director employs methods that endanger the physical and moral integrity of the people who work with him and for which he bears the responsibility as head of the project.”<\/p>\n
These lines, written by the Mouvement H\/F Occitanie LR, points to a much larger problem to which female performers are exposed due to contemporary media practices, that is, gazing, voyeurism and, occasionally, sexual harassment. The nature of these practices, I would claim, are largely informed by unequal power relations on set as well as behind the scenes; they are tied to several factors: economic, social and, last but not least, visual representation in general.<\/p>\n