I have long been impressed with the number of younger menopause and pre-menopause goddesses redefining the conversation about the changes for women that occur in midlife and beyond. I am so excited to share with you all a new project – Climacteria is a film project addressing just those themes with a scifi bent. The film is half-finished – a crowdfunding drive is being conducted to finish the movie and I am delighted to contribute and share. One caveat: this is not your mother’s menopause. Read and see more below:
Climacteria is a prediploma short film directed by Berglind Thrastardottir produced by the GERMAN FILM AND TELEVISION ACADEMY BERLIN; PILOT femmescifi / 40min / color / 2022 / BERLIN
Premiere: 2023
Status: in progress, half of the movie made, raising money for shooting the second part: Indiegogo for Climacteria
The plot:
Sandra, the world’s first spatial sound yoga creator has a career that seems to just keep peaking but when she arrives at the photoshoot for her ’solo’ feature in a magazine it becomes clear that Sandra will have to share the spotlight. Pressure to undergo beauty surgeries, the beginning of her menopause, a domino effect of a competitive capitalist society, Sandra begins to transform…supernaturally.
About the main actress:
SANDRA Michelle Glick is a menopause coach and activist who in the last years dedicated her main intention to changing the image and experience of menopause into a hopeful narrative, a return to magic. Destiny seems to have brought her to our project with our allied views and aim to shift the story we tell of menopause.
From the director:
I – Berglind aka. the director – grew up, like probably so many of you reading this text, following cues from the outside world that told me how to dress and behave. I internalized, like every woman I know, a belief in my inferiority and self-hatred, a belief that my body was not and would never be, good enough. It never occurred to me that there was someone responsible for creating these images that I compared myself with, that there was a conscious decision-maker behind them, but there was and still is.
I realize that my desire is now a part of me and that I have little influence over my own desires. I’m not trying to judge or influence any woman who desires to be beautiful, I am allied with them in this struggle. I realize that to change our desires we must first change society, and that is why I’m making this film.
As a female filmmaker I want to make a super-heroine role that emphasizes unique feminine conditioning, conditioning as old as time. I am NOT trying to write a role for a man and then just cast a woman instead, as I feel a lot of Series are doing right now. I want to reframe abilities that are unique to women and sisterhood as powerful forces, abilities like: nourishment, collectivity, empathy, listening. Sandra, our heroine, embodies these traits and in that way she is a superhero that challenges traits we currently understand as ‘powerful’ (ie: loud, dominant, overbearing).
When I was growing up, I found that deeply misogynistic thoughts plagued my brain. I asked myself if my period, my mood swings and hormones were a good justification for me not being able to do certain things that boys were doing. Please help me break this mold! It is so wrong! Women and our complex bodies equip us with special powers, we understand complexity and contradiction because it is often within us, it is absolutely no reason to discriminate and exclude us from positions of power and influence. Let’s save the future with our feminine perspective.
Manifesto:
~increasing the visibility of older women in leading roles that defy stereotypes~ ~addressing ageism and sexism head-on through positive counterexample/ role model ~solidarity among all women: there is no one right beauty ideal ~the right for every human to choose and pursue what they find beautiful ~creating a heroine accessible for everyone ~menopause as a journey forward and not one of loss ~encouraging love and connection ~inviting women to be the onlookers and not the looked UPON
Website:
Contact:
Elisabeth Köller (the producer): elisabeth.koeller@googlemail.com