The male gaze at women is not just commonplace in film, but in other visual arts, too. This programme, however, focuses on men and the male body as an object of observation, judgment, and desire. The films revolve around the objectification of men, offering glimpses – some serious, some tongue-in-cheek – behind the façade of toned bodies and sixpacks.
Arnold Schwarzenegger – The Art of Bodybuilding
Babeth M. VanLoo / Netherlands/USA 2019 / 8'20" / DCP / colour/black & white / English / Doc/Exp
The film, made in collaboration with Eye Filmmuseum, consists of unprocessed 16 mm material, which VanLoo shot during the Mr. Olympia Bodybuilding contest in the 1970s. Arnold Schwarzenegger, presented here as a living work of art, shares his views on classical sculpture, body and mind, beauty ideals, and more. Because the sound of the recording is not synchronized with the image, the text of the interview has been visualized on screen.
Audition
Lovisa Sirén / Sweden 2015 / 19'58" / colour / Swedish / Fic
Mika is auditioning male actors for her first feature. The actors are all established alpha dogs in the film business. The situation turns sour as their confidence in her reaches new lows. Mika starts pushing harder, reaching the limits of what’s okay in this kind of situation and what is not.
Toomas teispool metsikute huntide orgu
Chintis Lundgren / France/Estonia/Croatia 2019 / 18' / DCP / colour / English / Ani
After losing a well paid engineering job, Toomas, a young hot wolf, gets cornered into working as a gigolo to support his family. He is keeping it a secret from his pregnant wife Viivi. Viivi also has a secret: she is attending a female empowerment seminar involving male slaves. When Toomas gets a role in a sexploitation movie, it becomes harder to keep his new profession a secret.
Les dieux du supermarché
Alberto Gonzalez Morales / Switzerland 2022 / 7'54" / colour / English/French / Exp
In times of body positivity, this film pays tribute to the mainstream representation of the male body, which the director has a love-hate relationship with. Through a series of images from the internet and elsewhere (net found footage), our cultural obsession with unrealistic beauty standards is put into question.
Alpha Kings
Faye Tsakas/Enrique Pedráza-Botero / USA 2022 / 15' / DCP / colour / English / Doc
From a rented mansion in suburban Texas, a group of young men sell a hyperbolic, alpha-male version of themselves on the internet. Through the course of one night, the film explores the dichotomy between these online personas and their private selves, drawing on themes of desire, masculinity, sexuality, power, and performance.