A feminist science-fiction short film made in 2023
Winner of āBest Short Filmā at Golden Island Film Festival
Winner "Best Sound Designā at the PANO Shorts Showcase
Body Prison
Written and Produced by Julia Reingold
Directed and Shot by Cameron Kit
Summary:
In the future, aboard matriarchal space cooperative āLibertyā, women are born and live their lives without the shadow of the patriarchy over them. So when Sasha Rivera arrives at the correctional facility station to receive chastisement for public nudity, she is stunned at the form of her punishment: 1 hour of body dysmorphia, administered by a new, wicked customized AI program. Having grown up completely loving her body, her first experience feeling bodily shame leaves a bitter taste in her mouth.
Directorās Statement:
This film was originally written and drawn as comic called 'āThey Did It To Themselvesā by co-creator Julia Reingold after her decision to get a breast reduction, and was shot just a week before the surgery. Itās a response to the realization that body dysmorphia is terrorism. As a differently abled woman she feels this acutely.
What attracted me to this story was Juliaās comic series āInheritanceā - which paints a wild, sexy, daring vision of what a matriarchal society could look like. In space. As a science-fiction body horror, this film works in reverse to speak to the kind of idealistic society that comprises the āInheritanceā universe. Imagine a society where no one is born hating their body, where no one grows up feeling their body is ugly. As someone who has struggled with terrible body image for a large part of their life, I felt this script hit home.
While the Body Dysmorphia Algorithm seems insidious and hateful, it is in fact just executing its code, playing on the internal budding self-awareness of the inmate being tortured.
This is a new punishment being tested, but can we say itās working?
