'The Descent' - Rationale and Final Version

For optimal viewing experience, please watch on as big a screen and in as dark a room as possible. Turn that volume up and watch in 1080p HD.

Explaining the rationale behind my 5 minute assessment piece:

My aim is to make a surrealist eco-horror film that explores the idea of the ‘Monstrous Feminine’, and that challenges the misogynistic tropes that often come with films focused on her. For example, figures like ‘The Archaic Mother’, ‘The Possessed Monster’, ‘Monstrous Womb’, ‘Vampire’, and ‘Witch’, to name but a few that Barbara Creed analyses, are misogynistic tropes employed in horror films to demonise women and reassert patriarchal structures. What if, instead of demonising the monstrous feminine, I could challenge these tropes and story structure by embracing her and all her viscerality. I do not want to shy away from her, rather reframe how she is seen. Not as a misogynistic trope, but as a lens through which societal issues can be addressed.

In the film, there are two scenes, within which I am focusing on the body, movements and how the body interacts with the environment around it. The first scene explores this figure in the landscape, who seems to be a harbinger of something terrible to come, the initial introduction to the ‘Monstrous Feminine’ in my film. I am intentionally visually referencing The Ring (2002) here, with the black veil covering the figure’s face, as I am conveying a warning to the viewer, that the natural environment within which she dwells does not have long left. (The girl in the ring haunts the viewer after they watch a videotape that she has cursed, and after watching they have seven days to live, so her presence is essentially a harbinger of their own death.) This is subtle, and I don’t expect this to be easily understandable, but the reference is there to prompt thought. I explain later why I am comfortable with these ambiguities. I wanted to focus on her viscerality, her engagement with dirt and filth, her spit being visible in the fabric. I want the viewer to feel deeply unsettled by her, but as they watch I want them to want to be her at the same time, to become this uninhibited figure and be in the landscape like she is. I suppose this is a desire I have for those who feel like they can relate to the monstrous feminine, and those that cannot, I want them to be able to understand what this viscerality is communicating. That she is just ‘being’, that she is neither morally good nor evil, she is existing within the landscape.

The second scene is exploring ideas that I developed in response to Le Guin and Kristeva’s writings, as well as Creed’s. Here I am focusing on this relationship between an organismic entity, and a singular figure. Under the membrane, life is pulsing away, separated, constricted, and suffocated. This singular, spidery figure, moves around in unnatural ways, shrouded in black. I really like the visual dichotomy that is created between these two ‘beings’ in this section of the film, I think it does a good job of building the tension. There is something to be said here about the individual vs. the collective, of the singular vs. the multiple, and that they are all part of each other at the same time. Kristeva’s ideas about abjection, and the womb being an abject space has been very influential, as this membrane is referencing that, as well as this black cave/void/womb that this takes place in. I also kept the title of my film in mind for this ‘The Descent’ as well as Le Guin’s writings on a yin utopia, as this is what I visualised in response to her (full quote can be found on my blog post entitled ‘my research question’.) This dark, wet, cold, cyclical space where life seems to ebb and flow through, is how I visually wanted to respond to my research. I feel like it echoes this idea that from the void came chaos, and then back again, that the Ancient Greeks wrote about, and to some extent, what the Big Bang Theory is about. From nothing comes something. And for it to take place in a womb-like space with membranes and birthing references, it all felt thematically relevant.

I have taken inspiration from Le Guin's Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, and Donna Haraway's 'tentacular thinking' while making this film, and in thinking about my overall project. I am actively wanting to reimagine how to tell a story, and to think outside of the ‘usual’ way of telling a story, with a three-act structure, or a straightforward plot trajectory. I am engaging in poiesis, that is to say, I am problematising narrative structures and rejecting certain forms, to create something new that did not previously exist, or at least, a new way for me. I think if I am to achieve what I want to achieve, I need to use tools like Le Guin and Haraway have suggested, to create a space in my film that feels different, and that has room for development. My main goal for this assignment was to strike the balance between narrative/non-narrative filmmaking, and to have the hint of a story, but leaving lots of room for the viewer to come to their own conclusions, led by the symbolism and the body language. Ultimately, I feel like my background as an Art Historian massively influences how I make art and films, as I create work with the intention of it being read in multiple different ways. I have no desire to be an auteur; for my films to only have one meaning. I want my audience to engage and bring new layers of interpretation, as that is what happens in the process of watching.

The feminised body is important for me to explore in this film, as it is the body through which I experience life, and it made the most sense to me to focus on issues that I can relate to. I knew I wanted to incorporate feminist ideas, alongside eco-critical ones, and this felt like the right film to do it within. I feel as well that the feminised body is so often maligned or lauded when it comes to natural settings, as either Mother Nature or a pollutive force, that it felt important to explore this dichotomy and create something that felt somewhere in between. Women are also disproportionately affected by climate change, as it amplifies gender inequality, especially in countries that are on the front line of environmental disasters.

"Across the world, women depend more on, yet have less access to , natural resources. In many regions, women bear a disproportionate responsibility for securing food, water, and fuel, Agriculture is the most important employment sector for women in low and lower-middle income countries, during periods of drought and erratic rainfall, women as agricultural workers, and primary producers, work harder to secure income and resources for their families. This puts added pressure on girls, who often have to leave school to help their mothers manage the increased burden."

“Explainer: How gender inequality and climate change are interconnected”, News and Stories, UN Women,  28th February 2022, https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/explainer/2022/02/explainer-how-gender-inequality-and-climate-change-are-interconnected 

I have come a long way since starting the course, and I have been refining my ideas down to have as strong a core as possible. It is important to me that I make the most of this experience, as I am given the support and mentoring, I need to push the boundaries of my comfort zone and grow as a filmmaker.