Feminist documentaries, as argued by French (2021) have their roots in both second-wave feminism and Direct cinema. While The Long Road to the Director’s Chair utilizes more of cinéma vérité’s toolset as opposed to Direct cinema, its themes and era (1970s) date it to the peak of second wave feminism. The footage of the First International Women’s Film Seminar in Berlin, from 1973 and unearthed 50 years later, reflects on many of the problems of the then-called “Women’s Lib” movement thematized. As early on as the second interview, bodily expression intertwines with the lived experience of women in the film industry. 

This first mention of the female body concerns vaginal self-examination as a way of self-help and self-discovery and the psychological trauma of abortion as well. This is not surprising, as Løkkeberg’s own film to be presented at the Women’s Film Seminar also concerns abortion. The need for medical self-assertion rhymes perfectly well with many of the later presented problems women face in the film industry (assertiveness, not being taken seriously).

A later scene concerns women in Italy. The interviewee describes the main problems Italian women face: the availability of abortion and the lack of equal pay. She also describes the immense sexual taboo women face around their sexuality and their own bodies (once again mentioning the need for medical self-assertion), and describes how books on orgasm try to remedy this. Her own comments on the subject matter refuse the medicalization of the female body or orgasm (like reducing them to mere bodily functions or chemical reactions), instead she prefers a holistic approach to female pleasure. While this line of thought aligns well with second wave feminist aims, it also gives this speaker her own agency and subjectivity: she is free to represent herself and her body on her own terms.  

This also ties in well with the disagreement toward the end of the film: around the 50-minute mark, a woman claims that she is anti-abortion, but she cannot talk about this view of hers in this meeting. This also centers an elementary feminist debate about the right subjective experiences and individual thought, even in the case that it goes against the very feminist aims that allowed the expression itself.

Another discussion around the female body concerns a film one of the interviewees made about the pill for television which also gets shown in the Berlin Seminar – this parallels Løkkeberg’s own film about abortion. During the making of the film about the pill, men (probably male producers) demanded to have a say in the making of the film (claiming to know everything better) despite the female filmmakers’ aims. A woman sitting next to them later on describes the problem of men reducing them simply to their looks, claiming they are aggressive if they know what they want, and remarking that women who they deem to be ‘careerists’ cannot be in love. 

The final remark really ties the whole discussion about female bodies together: it is an anecdote about a woman who keeps running and losing weight in order not to get pregnant, and by doing so she might end up losing her husband. With this it’s settled: no matter what women do with their bodies, it is always up for critique and scrutiny. 

In conclusion, The Long Road to the Director’s Chair records the voices of women in the film industry; while also amplifying them and emphasizing how deeply bodily politics are woven into their personal and professional lives. The discussions around abortion, contraception, orgasms and self-representation highlight how female bodies are never neutral. The recurring theme of medical and professional self-assertion follows feminist aims to gain ground in the film industry itself, proving the bodily politics and artistic and technical self-expression are part of the same struggle for autonomy and agency. Many things changed during the 50 years Løkkeberg’s film stood undiscovered, but the tension between women’s (bodily) liberation and social taboos and scrutiny still persists. 

Reference 

French, L. (2021). Feminisms, Feminist Theory and Documentary Practice. In: The Female Gaze in Documentary Film. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68094-7_5

The article was created as part of the UniVerzió program, in collaboration between the Verzió Film Festival and the Department of Film Studies at Eötvös Loránd University. Instructor: Beja Margitházi.