Experimental Film: Catholic and Feminist Readings of my Films (2010-2016)

The commentary addresses the works in the Research Portfolio (2010-2016) which consists of three films and one multi-media installation. These films are experimental but look very different from my previous work. This reflects my decision to address figuration and realist representation in order to expand and
develop my experimental film language. The works are collective and individual portraits of women in monastic life, and one is a portrait of a young girl in a Catholic iconography. In these new works I find out what happens when you insert direct works about religion into an art space that is not expecting them and has no context ready for them. My aim is to see how that changes and tests the binaries of religion/art, traditional/experimental.

The commentary investigates the works through a Catholic framing/perspective; close reading as a method of viewing the work, and a feminist analysis that provides gendered readings of the works. These three come together to open a space of reflection and a critical perspective on the films. The commentary shows how the works open a space for a religious subject to emerge: one not hitherto represented in the context of experimental film.