Essay Canada 2009 English 0:07:10
What the hell is it with catfights? It’s not like I spent family movie nights watching sleazy 70’s soft porn – why am I so obsessed? What’s the flipping pull? Oh, and there’s a pull… The film explores my own response to the idea of girl-on-girl violence as I create a series of paintings where geishas, nurses and stewardesses battle it out in oils. Why is it that this aggression gets morphed into images that are sexually charged? A funny, thoughtful, visually striking piece about women, sexual roles, artistic creation and how imagery can be both ridiculous and profound at the same time. This by a painter/filmmaker with strong and occasionally guilty feminist leanings.
Kirsten Johnson, based in Toronto, comes to film via a strong background as a painter and performer. Her paintings appear in private and public collections all over the world. As an actor she has worked with directors Jeremy Podeswa, David Cronenberg and once was Ophelia in an infamous 8 hour DNA Theatre production of Hamlet. She turned to filmmaking as a way to fuse these different practices.
Her films have been shown at the Weiterstadt Film Festival, Montréal’s International Festival of Films on Art, the Female Eye Festival and Peterborough’s International Reframe Festival among others.
Whether making films, acting or painting she puts an emphasis on intellectual curiosity, emotional empathy and humour.
Her films have been shown at the Weiterstadt Film Festival, Montréal’s International Festival of Films on Art, the Female Eye Festival and Peterborough’s International Reframe Festival among others.
Whether making films, acting or painting she puts an emphasis on intellectual curiosity, emotional empathy and humour.