The Freemartin Calf
The Freemartin Calf (2010) is a 40 minute experimental fiction shot on black and white Super 8.
CAST & CREW
Written, directed & edited by Jayne Amara Ross
With Fabienne Mésenge, Orna Assouline, Mathieu Leblanc, Nick Alldridge & Frédéric D. Oberland
Original Soundtrack by Frédéric D. Oberland with Gaspar Claus
Cinematography: Jayne Amara Ross
Assistant director: Frédéric D. Oberland
Lighting technician: Michaël Capron
SYNOPSIS:
freemartin (n.): A sexually imperfect, usually sterile female calf born as a twin with a male calf due to the influence of male hormones during the development in utero. Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary, 2007.
The Freemartin Calf relates a day in the life of two women: a young girl and her mother, as they brave two very separate realities laced with a very similar pain, fueled by a dogged desire to both reject and conform to the societal roles imposed upon them. The film is a deliberation on the subject of the creative process: the importance of a belief in the invisible creative mechanism (represented by the female body), the angst associated with the inability to create and the part of us that we leave behind in the final product.
‘The realistic narrative of ‘The Freemartin Calf’ never ceases to enrichen its symbolic basis with dreamlike imagery. Here we are closer to a naturalism that its transcended, magnified. From the ambitious mis-en-scène to the intricate structure of the film and the power of the facture, ‘The Freemartin Calf’ is a film of great maturity – and of extraordinary beauty.’
Gabriela Trujillo (Culturopoing, June 2011)
CAST & CREW
Written, directed & edited by Jayne Amara Ross
With Fabienne Mésenge, Orna Assouline, Mathieu Leblanc, Nick Alldridge & Frédéric D. Oberland
Original Soundtrack by Frédéric D. Oberland with Gaspar Claus
Cinematography: Jayne Amara Ross
Assistant director: Frédéric D. Oberland
Lighting technician: Michaël Capron
SYNOPSIS:
freemartin (n.): A sexually imperfect, usually sterile female calf born as a twin with a male calf due to the influence of male hormones during the development in utero. Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary, 2007.
The Freemartin Calf relates a day in the life of two women: a young girl and her mother, as they brave two very separate realities laced with a very similar pain, fueled by a dogged desire to both reject and conform to the societal roles imposed upon them. The film is a deliberation on the subject of the creative process: the importance of a belief in the invisible creative mechanism (represented by the female body), the angst associated with the inability to create and the part of us that we leave behind in the final product.
‘The realistic narrative of ‘The Freemartin Calf’ never ceases to enrichen its symbolic basis with dreamlike imagery. Here we are closer to a naturalism that its transcended, magnified. From the ambitious mis-en-scène to the intricate structure of the film and the power of the facture, ‘The Freemartin Calf’ is a film of great maturity – and of extraordinary beauty.’
Gabriela Trujillo (Culturopoing, June 2011)
PAST & UPCOMING SCREENINGS
Festival Signes de Nuit, Cinéma Action Christine, Paris, France, October 2012
Festival Côté Court, Pantin, France, June 2012 (fiction competition)
Festival Côté Court, Pantin, France, June 2011 (live soundtrack)
Saint Mérry church, Paris, April 2011
La Cinémathèque Française, Paris, July 2010
Festival Signes de Nuit, Cinéma Action Christine, Paris, France, October 2012
Festival Côté Court, Pantin, France, June 2012 (fiction competition)
Festival Côté Court, Pantin, France, June 2011 (live soundtrack)
Saint Mérry church, Paris, April 2011
La Cinémathèque Française, Paris, July 2010
