Vermilion - A Dramatic Feature Film in the Feminine

Abstract

In a dramatic feature film about mothers and daughters, friends, and neighbours, Vermilion explores one uncompromising woman’s story as she composes the music of her last summer. Central to the film are the possibilities that arise when female characters unreservedly inhabit a story and a world that seeks the feminine in its representation and form, a world poetic in its scope. Situated in a matriarchal frame, this work as a whole counters dominant patriarchal influences in filmmaking and reflects on how deeply ingrained patriarchal structures and systems have co-opted women’s identities. Influenced by film philosophy and theory grounded in the French feminist (phenomenological) concept of écriture féminine, Vermilion develops its approaches to a sensate cinema in relation to feminine subjectivity, embodiment, corporeality, and materiality through the thinking of Laura U. Marks, Vivian Sobchack, and Martine Beugnet.

Together, the two parts of this creative works doctoral thesis (film and exegesis) offer a critical reflection on the making of a “feminine” feature film. A close reading of the resulting film artefact—its representation, narrative, and poetics—grounds a critical examination of the creative choices made in the making of Vermilion.

Ultimately, the primary contribution of this thesis is to further a feminist filmmaking practice in such a way that it might continue to challenge gender inequality and promote feminist values in a patriarchal world.