Those who lust and Rapa das bestas: of sensoriality as a political tool

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24310/fotocinema.29.2024.19631

Keywords:

Sensoriality, documentary film, feminism, phenomenology, politics, haptic

Abstract

Those who lust and Rapa das bestas emerge as two distinctive endeavors within the contemporary Spanish cinematic landscape. Rather than overtly showcasing their feminist stance by directly denouncing female inequality, they do so tangentially, probing into a social practice seemingly distant from gender conflict (a pigeon competition and an ancient tradition of horse shearing). In this study, the meticulous formal work of the two short films is analyzed, drawing upon the destabilization strategies of the gaze utilized in the so-called sensory documentary, evoking an audience experience that transcends purely intellectual engagement to also involve them emotionally and viscerally. It is through the estrangement operated on both the expressive and content levels that these two examples allow for the activation of a political reading of the androcentrism that pervades social spaces without having to explicitly articulate it. Though uncommon, the intertwining of the phenomenological and the semiotic proposed here sketches out new and hopeful paths of feminist positioning within the audiovisual landscape.

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Author Biography

Beatriz del Caz Pérez, Universitat Politècnica de València

Departamento de Comunicación Audiovisual, Documentación e Historia del Arte. Facultad de BBAA. Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. España

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Published

2024-07-19 — Updated on 2024-07-19

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How to Cite

Moral Martín, J., & del Caz Pérez, B. (2024). Those who lust and Rapa das bestas: of sensoriality as a political tool. Fotocinema. Revista científica De Cine Y fotografía, (29), 43–67. https://doi.org/10.24310/fotocinema.29.2024.19631