Dream Girls

Dream Girls (Under the Sun)

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Documentary on the all-women Takarazuka Revue, which presents fantasy shows of erotic love and romance to exclusively female audiences.

Under the Sun was a anthropological documentary series looking at people and cultures around the world at the edge of rapid change or obliteration. This episode looks at the Takarazuka Revue, an extremely popular Japanese musical theatre extravaganza. The Revue's all-women- cast, who create fantasies of erotic love and sensitive men, are idolised by many thousands of Japanese women.
The performers live a highly disciplined and reclusive existence. Those who impersonate men on stage are particularly admired by their adoring fans. The documentary explores the nature of sexual identity and the tensions facing young women today in Japan.

Documentary about the Takarazuka Revue, an extremely popular musical
extravaganza performed by a women-only cast who create fantasies of erotic
love and sensitive men and are idolised by many thousands of Japanese women.
The performers live a highly disciplined and reclusive existence. Those that
impersonate men on stage are particularly admired by their adoring fans. The
film explores the nature of sexual identity and the contradictory tensions
that face young women in Japan today.


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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.

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Dream Girls

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