documentary. drama / United States / 82’ / Color / status : completed / English / Feature Documentary / International collections
In 1976, American filmmaker Martha Coolidge made her first film, centering on a major trauma from her adolescence. By staging the rape she had suffered at sixteen with actors—and discussing this reenactment with them—she sheds innovative light on the mechanisms of sexual violence and male domination, while demonstrating how cinema offers a means of resisting them.
Press
«The film is transmitting both knowledge about a culture of abuse, and about the resistance to that culture through the innovative use of the language of cinema. And how that makes a great movie. NOT A PRETTY PICTURE feels strikingly close to contemporary narratives and the reflexive politics around the gaze. It means it contributed to inventing them all.»
Céline Sciamma
«NOT A PRETTY PICTURE announced Martha Coolidge as a major new talent.»
IndieWire
«It's blend of documentary and dramatic filmmaking, of first-person reflection and renactment, sets a standard for cinematic inquiry into the political implications of personal experience.»
Richard Brody, The New Yorker
«Complex, brilliant. A tremendous emotional force.»
New York Times
«More than a movie – it’s a mirror. Exceptional.»
Sunday News
«A conversation starter in the 1970s and still serves as one today.»
Seventh Row
«Intense and insightful. We are still learning the same lessons Coolidge was trying to impart.»
The Village Voice
«An extraordinary project.»
Film Comment
