Occupations of Uninhabited Space 03: What's After Jeanne Dielman 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles Was Voted the Greatest Film of All Time?
When:
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Venue:
Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square
Occupations of Uninhabited Space 03: What’s After Jeanne Dielman 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles Was Voted the Greatest Film of All Time?
Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles was voted “the greatest film of all time” in the 2022 Sight and Sound poll. For the first time in 70 years, a film directed by a woman, focusing on the life of a woman, claimed the top position.
The film shows three days of Dielman’s life, packed with tasks—cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping and having sex with men to support her and her son. Repetitive daily chores occupy most of the time on screen, a rare subject among all the other films listed in the poll and the history of cinema at large. Yet these mundane moments constituted the majority of Dielman's day, like Akerman’s mother’s remark on the film—“In shot with the potatoes, there is everything.”
In her article celebrating the news in the magazine, Laura Mulvey states that this is “a triumph for women’s cinema” and that “things will never be the same”. So what comes after this feminist victory? How do we move forward?
In 2012, Theresa May altered the rules of the Overseas Domestic Worker (ODW) visa: tying the visa to workers’ employers, making it unrenewable, restricting the stay to 6 months, and stripping away workers’ right to settle or apply for their family and dependents to join them in the country. This policy change makes migrant domestic workers even more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
Join us for a screening and discussion with the Kanlungan Filipino Consortium and other organisations on migrant domestic workers' rights in the UK and beyond.
Films:
Saute ma ville (Blow Up My Town)
Chantal Akerman | 1968 | Belgium | 11'
Akerman’s first short features a young girl, played by the filmmaker herself, alone in her apartment, where she dismantles domestic routines with a Chaplinesque, erratic and explosive manner.
Overseas
Yoon Sung-A | 2019 | Belgium, France | 91'
In a training facility, a group of Filipino women are preparing themselves for the harsh realities they are about to face as overseas domestic workers—separations from families and potential abuses—through a series of role-play exercises.
Pamilya
Miles Blacket | 2023 | United Kingdom | 14'
Made in collaboration with the Filipino Domestic Workers Association, the film tells a story of resilience and community support among survivors of modern slavery in the UK.
This is a free event, but you are recommended to donate to Bethune House in Hong Kong to support their work in providing shelter for migrant women workers, especially for the victims of the Tai Po Fire in 2025.
Donation link: https://bethunehouse.org/donate
Occupations of Uninhabited Space is a guerrilla screening series that stems from the necessity to stand in solidarity with migrant workers around the world through the exhibition of experimental films.
Contact name: Matthew Barrington
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