LADIES FIRST: ANTENNA'S KIM LONGINOTTO RETROSPECTIVE

“If women have no rights, if they are completely powerless, then they're the ones that you're going to want to make films about. If there was a place where men were being kicked around and women were locking them in cages, then you'd focus on [the men]." – Kim Longinotto, February 2010.

Arguably the most potent cinematic voice in the ongoing struggle for women’s rights, British documentarian Kim Longinotto (Pink Saris, 2010; Rough Aunties, 2008) has amassed an extraordinary body of work that has challenged gender bias and the social restraint of women the world over. The 2013 edition of Australia’s Antenna Documentary Festival will present a five film retrospective that broadly encapsulates the last 20 years of her groundbreaking projects.

SHINJUKU BOYS (UK, Japan; 1995)
In the New Marilyn Club, gender roles and their mainstream definitions do not apply. This Tokyo nightclub is the domain of the ‘Onnabes’ – women who dress as men to entertain a clientele of upmarket women. With co-director Jano Williams, Longinotto presents a wildly entertaining, deeply insightful take on female archetypes in modern Japan, exploring transvestitism, lesbianism, sexuality and romance with a candid and forthright lens.
Critics said…: “Shinjuku Boys gets just about everything right, providing a window into a world we might otherwise never have realised even existed, but through an approach that promotes genuine understanding and admiration for its subjects and their refusal to be hammered down by the conventions of society.” – Slarek, Cine Outsider. 

DIVORCE IRANIAN STYLE (UK, Iran; 1998)
With Iranian anthropologist Ziba Mir-Hosseini providing context at crucial points, Longinotto’s observational eye chronicles the personal bitterness and cultural constraints on display in Tehran’s divorce court. The vociferous pleas of women determined to be heard from beneath the veil of Islamic doctrine makes for a highly-charged, complex study of women battling history, law and society for individual freedom.  
Critics said…: "Divorce Iranian Style, which was runner-up for the audience award at this year's San Francisco International Film Festival, chafes with outrage over the sexism rampant in Iranian society… a document of vexing (and vexed) immediacy.” – Wesley Morris, San Francisco Chronicle.

GAEA GIRLS (UK, Japan; 2000)
Reteaming with her Shinjuku Boys collaborator, Longinotto displays a lightness of touch in telling the story of four rookie female wrestlers undergoing a gruelling training regime at the famous Gaea facility in rural Japan. Women’s pro-wrestling, or ‘joshi puroresu’, is a big-ticket item in the sports-mad big cities of modern Japan; the filmmakers capture the pressure of fulfilling one’s dream to be the pinnacle of a sport that, from day one of training camp, tolerates nothing less than perfection.
Critics said…: “The documentary's rawness—its handheld cameras, lack of snappy editing or music, and lengthy, realistically wandering scenes—conveys the rawness of the fighting itself, particularly its lack of form, grace, style, or mercy… emotionally wracking, exhausting, and real in ways that a more polished and packaged documentary couldn't [be]” – Tasha Robinson, The AV Club.

SISTERS IN LAW (UK, Cameroon; 2005)
One of Longinotto’s most lauded works (including the prestigious Peabody award and the CICAE honour at the Cannes Film Festival), this expansive study in personal determination and faith in the word of law follows two high-ranking women court officials in the southwest township of Kumba in Cameroon.  State Prosecutor Vera Ngassa and Court President Beatrice Ntuba are faced with the worst instances of abuse against women of all ages in their courtroom and have taken a stand against systemic patriarchal dominance.
Critics said…: “A compelling study of a small-town lawyer's determination to challenge Cameroon's institutionalised chauvinism, which judiciously combines small triumphs with a daunting sense of the task that lies ahead.” – David Parkinson, Empire.

SALMA (UK, India; 2013)
In her most current work, Longinotto recounts the story of a Muslim child from a South Indian village who has only recently emerged from 25 years of being held against her will. In that time, Salma would sneak out poetic observations of her life to be distributed to her growing legion of supporters. Today, Salma is the most famous Tamil poet of her generation and an iconoclastic advocate for change in her home state. 
Critics said…: “Kim Longinotto's Salma feels like a dispatch from the social-justice front, a profile that in many way symbolizes the resistance of women to a developing world that hasn't caught up with developments in gender equality.” – John Anderson, Variety.

The Antenna Documentary Film Festival's Kim Longinotto Retrospective launches at the Chauvel Cinema on Friday October 4 then continues at the Art Gallery of New South Wales until Monday October 7. Further details and booking information can be found here.