WomenCinemakers vol V WomenCinemakers vol V | Page 30

We would like now to explore your recent project• Magna Mater.• Can you tell us something about this amazing film? Following on from my staged piece Grandesan, which explored matriarchal societies, I wanted to delve deeper into female leadership. When women with authority are portrayed not only in dance but in media, film and society as a whole she often becomes a lonely, bitter woman incapable of working with others. These negative portrayals persist despite all the positive results from studies on female leadership. In a world where leaders in politics, religion and media are overwhelmingly male it is intriguing that when civilization first took form, the highest entity was a• woman. Archaeological evidence shows us that the earth was once viewed and• worshipped as a living, female being: the Great Mother. Across the world this primary goddess took different names and shapes but was never limited to the sole quality of motherhood: she was a• warrior, the creator of life and death, nurturing yet terrifying, in control of the forces around her with the Yoni as a interview•by•Bonnie Curtis cinemakers // 11 Emilsson interview In the Director's statement for Magna Mater, you say There is a lack of honest, positive portraits of women with power so with• Magna Mater• I wanted to explore complex female characters where the dynamic and powerful group• they create is a given, not an exception.