I Look Like This
Rewarding, sensitive documentary exploring video dating
Somewhere between the era of newspaper lonelyhearts columns and the arrival of Tinder, there was video dating. This subtle, rewarding ITV documentary by Czech-born writer-director Jana Boková takes us inside the London-based Video Match agency, and follows a selection of hopefuls looking for love via VHS tape.
27-year-old Joe ('a Virgo, but I have the characteristics of a Leo'), plays with a steel band and is looking for 'a warm, intelligent, mature woman who knows how to treat a man like a man'. Bored hotel receptionist Judy likes music, dancing and going to the cinema, and is looking for someone 'a bit crazy'. Jenny has had enough of casual flings and now wants a 'steady loving relationship', with 'a kind, affectionate, sincere kind of person'. As for Alf, it's lonely being a single dad, but is he looking for a companion, or just a mother for young Shane? All these - and several others - bravely submit not only to Video Match's camera, but to the Granada television crew's, too.
We get some insight into how the agency operates from its slightly drab office, with its tiny waiting room, where clients make awkward small talk about their hopes and experiences. Within the inner sanctum, soft-spoken agency boss Stephen, who handles both the camera and the video player, gently coaches them on how to 'do a television commercial for yourself', or helps them appraise any candidate on the screen.
The succession of loveseekers do their best to put on a cheerful face for the videotape, but beneath at least some of the awkward smiles lie heartbreak and pain. One woman is still raw from a broken relationship with a selfish man and an unwanted abortion; another pines for lost happiness and longs to replace her electric blanket with some human warmth.
Made for the prestigious Granada documentary strand This England, I Look Like This is an early work by Czech-born writer-director Jana Boková. She went on to enjoy an international career spanning four decades. She is married to fellow-documentarist Leslie Megahey.
Granada had built a reputation for groundbreaking observational documentaries since the late 1950s, with work by filmmakers including Denis Mitchell, Michael Grigsby, Tony Palmer and Norman Swallow, all of whom made films for This England.
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The Camera Is Ours: Women Documentary Filmmakers
Most leading documentary filmmakers in Britain today are women - a stark contrast with feature film directors who, despite some progress in recent years, are still overwhelmingly male. But prominence in documentary wasn't handed to women on a plate: a debt of thanks is due to the determination and resourcefulness of previous generations of women to seize the camera and film their own stories.
Women have been pivotal to British documentary filmmaking since the 1930s. It might be a man, John Grierson, who is remembered as 'the father of documentary', but the movement he founded made (some) space for women too, including two of his sisters, Ruby and Marion, who told her brother, 'The trouble with you is that you look at things as though they were in a goldfish bowl. I'm going to break your goldfish bowl.' Marion went on to do just that, alongside others of her generation, such as Jill Craigie.
This collection focuses on what we could call a 'second generation' of women documentary filmmakers who emerged from the 1970s and 80s. Notable among them is Kim Longinotto, one of Britain's most prolific and accomplished documentarists whose work over more than 40 years, has explored women's experiences in unfamiliar contexts and cultures. Also featured are the work of collectives and workshops such as the Sheffield Film Co-op who, with the help of more affordable and easy-to-use video equipment, sought to extend the tools and skills of filmmaking to women who would never otherwise have had such opportunities. The resulting films highlight how their practical feminism brought new voices, perspectives and approaches to documentary, and told new stories with fire, wit and humanity.
9 videos in this collection
1
2
Eat the Kimono
3
A Peace of Her Mind
4
Gaea Girls
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Life and Death on Exmoor
6
Rossington - A Pit with a Future
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Jill Craigie / Rosamond Lehmann
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I Look Like This
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