While male-centric Hollywood has few female directors, at UCLA
their perspectives are at the fore of documentary filmmaking.
The UCLA film school will highlight five female student
documentaries at the annual student documentary screenings, titled
“Documentary Salon: Visions of Five.” With complex
logistics and low budgets, the women have created films with
ambitious scopes and independent voices.
“Women were very rare in filmmaking, especially
documentaries,” said documentary film professor Marina
Goldovskaya. “It was difficult for women to prove they can do
it. Women are coming into documentary filmmaking easily, with great
enthusiasm.”
In “La Petite Morte,” director Emmanuelle Schick
looks at the life of French actress and former porn star Rafaella
Anderson.
“I wanted more of a humane look at what people like
Rafaella had to go through in the porn industry,” Schick
said. “Rafaella’s been betrayed before by interviewers,
so I wanted to be fair and not rehash her past.”
Making documentaries often means racking up frequent flier
miles, and Schick traveled between France, Canada, and the United
States to make this one.
For “One Winter in China,” about children in Chinese
orphanages, director Victoria Meng went to a remote Chinese
village. Doubling as an orphanage volunteer, she faced problems
because of the political nature of her subject.
“One feels one needs to take sides, either that conditions
violate human rights, or to make it propagandistic,” Meng
said. “I’ve tried to steer away from both of those and
away from narrative that makes it too darling.”
For “Baile Del Diavolo,” Maria Teresa Murillo shot
artistic director Jacques Heim’s dance troupe over the course
of two years.
While the filmmakers might not think in such gender-oriented
terms, Goldovskaya, a veteran documentarian of 30 years, does.
“Documentaries are perfect for women to find their own
voice,” Goldovskaya said.
Meng, Schick, and Murillo crafted their documentaries out of
personal motives. Whether dealing with female issues or not, they
will chronicle the world around us.
“Documentaries are so real and so genuine,” Murillo
said. “You can’t write this stuff. They humanize people
in situations we can only imagine.”
Free “Visions of 5″ screening today at 7:30 p.m. in
the James Bridges Theater.