This week I watched the k-film Gaze which I found on the Korsakow website’s showcase section. 

The film is about how we encounter strangers in our day to lives, without ever knowing their story or their experience of the world. There are twenty fragments to this piece. Many of these fragments have internal-monologue-like voiceovers of the male strangers who see a woman walking through the city. The content of their discussion seems to provide an insight into the predominant ‘male gaze’ with is ripe with desire and objectification.

I like how you can select either a low, medium or high quality viewing of the k-film, as this means that if you have a slow internet connection, you’re not penalised. However, what I found interesting was that this is the first k-film I have seen which stitches together its video fragments with cross-fade photographs as opposed to videos.

All of the fragments have been edited to black and white, with the exception of spot colour on the lips and scarf of the main protagonist: a woman who is seen walking through the city.

Each time you click the red woman, you are given a viewing window of her with three preview windows on the right hand side showing three men’s faces you can choose from. When you select one of these, it takes you to an interface with a viewing window and two previews below, and eventually one of these previews becomes the girl. When you click on her it takes you back to the original interface. It goes through this cycle about three times until finally you arrive at an end SNU of the girl finally talking and giving her perspective of how she is perceived by strangers.

The feeling of the film becomes quite eerie as you get deeper in to it. There is a background track which plays the entirety of the time you are in the k-film, which also adds to the somewhat sombre mood.  The footage comes across as almost obsessive, and I found myself starting to feel sorry and sympathise with the girl after each clip. I think the filmmakers have made a very effective piece which highlights problems with femininity in our society, and the inescapable reality of voyeurism.