Margin of Sight

March 7 - September 19, 2020

Margin of Sight program, which has been postponed within the framework of the measures taken against the new Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, continues from where it left off.

Pera Film, in collaboration with 5Harfliler and curated by Suna Kafadar, presents the program Margin of Sight. The series of screenings and a talk is titled in reference to the women filmmakers who have been trying to look at the margin of sight, which marks the limits of the male gaze that encodes women’s lives and bodies as a totality that is ‘looked at’ but never looks back. This totality endeavors to condense women into a boring but fatal binary that either abstracts and sublimes women or dis-members them in violent visual gestures.

While the films in the program challenge the mainstream masculinist cinematic gaze, they also create doors that open to new worlds and possibilities by making use of experimentation with various mediums, temporalities and visual styles in cinema. This film program is a small but sure testament of how vital experimentation is for women filmmakers’ thought and art practices. Since the 70s, artists who have been nourished by feminism have shown a great diversity and creativity in the way that they have translated their lives, thoughts and fantasies into film.

Composed of shorts and feature films, the program features lives or life fragments of singular women, through which we see how feminist interventions in cinema have transformed the way we look. We call out to you to think with us on representation, in a visual and symbolic world where we as women struggle to determine our lives, while forfeiting the very lives that we have struggled so hard to own up to and live through.

Inspired by women who take back the night on March 8, Margin of Sight is dedicated to those women all around the world.

5Harfliler

Established in 2012, 5Harfliler is a feminist online publication. Since its inception, the platform has been open to anyone and everyone who wish to submit their writings, and have been collectively organized and managed by a core team made up of women. Ranging from art to science, experience pieces to macro politics, 5Harfliler continues to publish cultural critique, considering only the sky as the limit. Until now, 5Harfliler has worked with over 500 contributors and published more than 2500 pieces.

This program’s screenings are free admissions. Drop in, no reservations. As per legal regulations, all our screenings are restricted to persons over 18 years of age, unless stated otherwise.

In collaboration

 

March 7

14:00 Me and Nuri Bala

Everybody Hear Me Out

German Song

Raffle

15:00 Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

March 8

16:00 Her Silent Seaming

Measures of Distance

Solitary Acts #4

Solitary Acts #6

September 3

18:00 Me and Nuri Bala

Everybody Hear Me Out

Raffle

September 11

18:00 Riddles of the Sphinx

September 13

13:00 Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

September 16

18:00 German Song

Her Silent Seaming

Measures of Distance

Solitary Acts #4

Solitary Acts #6

September 19

15:00 Riddles of the Sphinx

Me and Nuri Bala

Me and Nuri Bala

Everybody Hear Me Out

Everybody Hear Me Out

German Song

German Song

Her Silent Seaming

Her Silent Seaming

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

Measures of Distance

Measures of Distance

Raffle

Raffle

Riddles of the Sphinx

Riddles of the Sphinx

Solitary Acts #4

Solitary Acts #4

Solitary Acts #6

Solitary Acts #6

Program Trailer

Margin of Sight

Pera Film, in collaboration with 5Harfliler and curated by Suna Kafadar, presents the program Margin of Sight. The series of screenings and a talk is titled in reference to the women filmmakers who have been trying to look at the margin of sight, which marks the limits of the male gaze that encodes women’s lives and bodies as a totality that is ‘looked at’ but never looks back. This totality endeavors to condense women into a boring but fatal binary that either abstracts and sublimes women or dis-members them in violent visual gestures.

Ottoman Music and Entertainment from the Perspective of Painters

Ottoman Music and Entertainment from the Perspective of Painters

When we examine the Ottoman-themed paintings of indoor everyday life by western painters, musical entertainment attracts attention as a fundamental aspect of the lifestyle.

Venuses Throughout History

Venuses Throughout History

José Sancho does not conceal the voluptuousness of his female torsos; he highlights it. These torsos are symmetrical from front, but on the other hand, from the side, the juxtaposition of concave and convex forms creates dynamism.

Fluid Rego

Fluid Rego

While Paula Rego belatedly was recognised as one of the leading feminist pioneers of her age, little has been written about her exploration of fluid sexuality. Indeed the current of sado-masochism in her drawings and paintings, has tended to encourage an understanding as a classic clash between the patriarchy and exploited women.