This is my basic idea! Please comment with suggestions/feedback.

I really enjoy a few short poems/ quotes by Rupi Kaur and Ena Ganguly that I could incorporate into an experimental film with a poetic aspect about female body image and self talk. I have a layout for this short film.

intro with narrator: Ganguly “Often I fell that low self esteem is a criteria for a person to be feminine” Followed by a variety of females- interviewed and asked about how they feel about their image, what they would change, who is their biggest critic, how they would describe themselves, general information and age; b-roll of them doing their job, interacting with others

Extreme close ups of these individual’s faces where they are starting straight into the camera; Hoping to get over 15 individuals with different backgrounds behind them.

A narrator again would read from Kaur ” The way your speak of yourself/ the way you degrade yourself into smallness is abuse” after the interviews would again be featured- closeups of their body and answers. Again weaved in would be the narrator “people say things meant to rip you in half but you have the power to not turn their words into a knife and cut yourself ” Kaur. I think to change the mood of the film I would the feature the lighter answers- possibly the women saying how they are intelligent, strong, confident… to change the mood to end. Maybe incorporating a part of ‘Phenomenal woman”  to end on a high.

The major themes are: A personal perspective of image/reflection, looking into the ‘female gaze’ rather than the male gaze, empowerment. I think that  highlighting how females are often the one’s put themselves down is essential to the point of the film. The simple sentences these two females have created are so powerful and can really open up a new way for someone to think about how they see/talk to themselves. I personally can agree that I am probably my own biggest critic and often can be the most degrading. Hearing it in terms of ‘self abuse’ is a strong statement but helped me and can help others to realize how much of an impact our own words have.

Any feedback would be a great help! Thanks!