'Film Course: Women Make Film VII' consists of two sixty-minute screenings: each followed by a discussion with a filmmaker and a critic.   

In the last class, the journey through the work of the world’s greatest women directors concludes with the biggest themes of all: life, love, and death. This session features screenings of six chapters from Mark Cousins’ Women Make Film.

In ‘Life Inside’, Cousins describes how directors have illuminated inner life. Next, ‘The Meaning of Life’ looks at how filmmakers attempt to invoke life by responding to our lives, whether it’s realising that empathy is key to life or seeing time passes before our eyes. ‘Love’ reminds us of the magic moment in full bloom and its pitfalls.

‘Death’, a theme embraced by all filmmakers, begins with the fascination for stylised deaths in its simplest form as well as its destructive shock. The programme winds down with ‘Endings’, from unfamiliar ones to bold, uncertain ones that can be happy or sad. Women Make Film ends with ‘Song and Dance’ by looking at how cinema uses musical elements of theatre and opera to increase a sense of movement.

Women Make Film, Cousins’ epic journey, ends with Beyonce’s visual album, Lemonade.

Join Heiward Mak, one of the most accomplished woman filmmakers of her generation in Hong Kong, and veteran critic and curator Li Cheuk-to in this talk session. They will explore the meaning of life, love, and death depicted in Cousins’ Women Make Film. The speakers will draw examples from Mak’s High Noon (2008), Ex (2010), and Fagara (2019). Li will also revisit the entire film course and provide concluding remarks as well as feedback and input from the audiences.