EAT THE KIMONO – Kino Caisa: March Through the Frame

WOMEN’S STORIES THROUGH DOCUMENTARY CINEMA

Emotional, weird, too sensitive, too much… Women who don’t follow normative scripts often pay a price for not conforming.

MARCH THROUGH THE FRAME is a four-week programme of documentaries where these women are centred as narrators in their own right. Drawing on personal and community archives, each Tuesday we celebrate the joy and strength in our collective refusals and journeys of self-discovery.

The second film in the series, EAT THE KIMONO, is a brilliant documentary about Hanavagi Genshu, a Japanese feminist and avant-garde dancer and performer, who has spent her life defying her conservative culture’s contempt for independence and unconventionality. She denounced Emperor Hirohito as a war criminal and dismissed death threats made against her by right-wing groups.

“You mustn’t be eaten by the kimono,” says Genshu, making reference to the traditional Japanese dress designed to restrict movement for women, “You must eat the kimono and gobble it up.”

English subtitles included. Duration 61 minutes.

The programme is curated by Adalmiina Erkkola, a cultural producer interested in the political potential of film. They also host the No Man’s Land radio show at IDA Helsinki.