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15th DMZ Docs(2023)

I AM DOCU



Of Girls

Wendelien VAN OLDENBORGH

  • Japan
  • 2023
  • 43min
  • 12 +
  • DCP
  • color

World Premiere

Synopsis

Filmed in Tokyo and Yokohama, of girls brings a variety of contemporary voices in resonance with two distinct female voices from Japan¡¯s literary and political past. Both popular authors of their time—the period from the late 1920s on—Fumiko Hayashi and Yuriko Miyamoto both died young, in 1951. They each had a strong feminist and class consciousness as well as an impressive literary voice, but came from very different backgrounds and expressed their ideals through different paths. 

Review

 Artists, architects, writers, actors, curators, and scholars work together in an investigation group, and their investigation on marginalized or invisible women focuses on Japan-based writers and politicians. Of Girls targets Fumiko Hayashi, a feminist writer who wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, and Yuriko Miyamoto, who pursued socialist ideals and homosexuality and worked for the liberation of women. The investigation is performed by moving between the library and the Tokyo house designed by Fumiko, double screens designed as a moving border, and moving cameras. It also combines debate, reading, and performance to show the paths of two women and the power of their words and writings.  

Director

  • Wendelien VAN OLDENBORGH

    Wendelien van Oldenborgh develops works, whereby the cinematic format is used as a methodology for production and as the basic language for various forms of presentation. She often uses the format of a public film shoot, collaborating with participants in different scenarios, to co-produce a script and orientate the work towards its outcome. With these works, which look at the structures that form and hinder us, she participated in various large biennials, and in smaller dedicated shows.

Credit