Migration, documentary film, and female interiority
Documentary Film: 36 minutes, 46 second

Hawkins, M.

English

LSBU Research Open

Husband and WifeMigration, documentary film, and female interiorityDocumentary Film: 36 minutes, 46 secondsDr Matthew Hawkins1. Table of Contents1. Contents Page2. Description3. 300 Word Statement4. Film Extracts5. Complete Film6. Supporting Documentation2. DescriptionHusband and Wife is a documentary film concerning one woman’s journeyfrom Poland to London, England to reclaim the body and the dignity of herhusband after his death. The film was shot over a period of 1 year with atwo-person crew.The film was co-directed by long term filmmaking team, Matthew Hawkinsand Marta Hawkins.Cinematography – Matthew Hawkins.Editing and colour grade – Matthew Hawkins.Film Screening and Keynote presentation: Creative Bodies, Creative Mindsconference, Gratz, Austria.Shortlisted: British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies(BAFTSS) best Audiovisual Practice-Research (winner announced April 2021).Special screening: London Migration Film Festival, and was under discussionat the Voyeurism in Documentary Filmmaking on Migration event atUniversity of Westminster.Invited Exhibition: Spotkanie Filmowa, at Opt-Art, Wroclaw, Poland.Nominated for the Jury and Audience prize in the European Competition fordocumentary film at Szczecin Film Festival, Poland.3. 300 Word StatementThe documentary applies methods developed during the author's PhDin retaliation to narrative filmmaking and role of affective tonality inproducing a cinematic narrative. These methods are applied and testedin a documentary format for the first time. The methodologicalapproach derives from Lucy Bolton’s mobilisation of Luce Irigaray’s workon female interiority, taken from fiction film and applied todocumentary practice.The work applies a novel approach to the creation of a filmic, affectualinteriority. Concepts drawn from the area of film-philosophy, andfeminist film studies, traditionally used in the analysis of fiction films,were used in the production process of documentary practice, thuscreating new forms of knowledge in relation to both the production andanalysis of documentary forms. The film applies a structure derivedfrom Sophocles’ play Antigone, order to draw out the allegorical natureof the protagonist’s journey, process of grieving, dealing withbureaucracy, government and patriarchal structures; two women andtwo stories; Antigone, a mythical Theban woman, battles the verdict ofthe king, Creon, to secure a decent burial for her brother, Polyneices.Beata, a widowed woman from a small Polish city, battles bureaucracyto secure a decent burial for her husband.Through the production, the directors developed the concept offilmiation, as detailed in the paper, ‘Antigone in the London Office:documentary film, creativity and female agency’ (Cultural Studies,forthcoming). Filmiation is the creative act of the filmmaking process,which creates a space where the life of the characters and the life of thecamera merge. This creative, feminist space is what the directors term,filmiation, and we regard it as a space of mutual influence betweenthemselves, the protagonist and the documentary film.The work is one of few documentary films to explicitly address affectiveinteriority, whilst mobilising an Irigarayan/Boltonian theoreticalframework.4. Film Extracts 10:46 https://vimeo.com/4245257545. Whole Film 36:46https://vimeo.com/473103589/75608496ea6. Supporting DocumentationFilm Screening and Keynote presentation: Creative Bodies, Creative Minds conference, Gratz, Austria. Invited Exhibition: Spotkanie Filmowa, at Opt-Art, Wroclaw, Poland.Special screening: London Migration Film Festivalhttps://www.migrationcollective.com/lmff-2018-programmeAccessed 17th May 2020https://alternative-fictions.com/events.phpAccessed 17th May 2020https://www.baftss.org/awardsAccessed 28th February 2021

Husband and Wife

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Husband and Wife

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