The message of Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power is one that we rarely see; an attempt to inform and course-correct an entire industry. This documentary is presented to elicit discussion and further investigation about how the male gaze has usurped the artform. Example after example is given, making an argument against this concept immensely difficult to defend. The brainchild of filmmaker Nina Menkes, this documentary features a vastly female cast and crew.
From the cinematography of Shana Hagan (of the Primetime Emmy–nominated Return to Space, Peabody Award–nominated Somebody, Somewhere, and BAFTA–nominated 63 Up) to the editing of Cecily Rhett (Primetime Emmy–nominated Bates Motel) and actors like Rosanna Arquette (Primetime Emmy nominee), the talent on-camera and off is remarkable. One of the most influential filmmakers on this team was producer Samantha Gao. Ms. Gao led and advised Nina Menkes throughout the phases of the film to ensure that her message would not simply be manifested, but that it would be delivered to a domestic and international market successfully.
Making a statement doesn’t matter if no one hears it and Samantha’s contributions to Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power produced historic results. Has the film industry been guilty of flagrantly discriminating against women while promoting the sexual abuse and assault of them? Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power clearly gives an answer for those who pay attention. Possibly of even greater importance, it raises an awareness which hopes to defuse any future such attempts.
The experience of watching this documentary film is one of proposing a perspective shift. The filmmakers are challenging us to see what the industry has always presented as a skewed view of women, shortsightedly seeing them as less than equal human beings. To achieve this, the past must be put into context. Repeatedly, Samantha offered ideas that would enable this approach and support the ideas offered by Nina Menkes. At Ms. Gao’s suggestion, a gritty texture was applied to the graphics that were created in post in order to magnify the style and the timeline progress from the nineteen eighties to the twenty-first century.
The result is a more immersive and evocative viewing experience for the audience throughout the entire film. This approach not only enhances the visual storytelling but also allows viewers to vividly connect with the Hollywood over the decades, creating a powerful narrative that resonates on a deeper level. Samantha also initiated the idea of using sound design to take the audience into “films within a film.” This places the viewer alongside professionals and inside the process of actual film-making.
Camera elements like the sound of the camera reload, shutter click, and others were mixed interspersed with Nina’s narrative throughout this documentary to communicate this environment. This subtle concept gently conveys a feeling of being a part the film-making process and establishes an emotional conduit between the audience and the story.
A sobering fact of the modern day film industry is that even an incredible film can flounder due to lack of exposure. One of the most essential parts of Samantha’s role as producer on Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power was ensuring that this was not the fate of the project. The truth is that a documentary film, particularly an independently funded one, is very difficult to sell in comparison to a fictional film.
It was Samantha’s exceptional story pitching skill, marketing skills, and negotiating skill as a producer, implementing traditional marketing strategy along with an innovative social media campaign, that lead this project to land a distribution deal in North America with Kino Lorber and an International deal with Cinephil. This achievement catapulted the project into the ranks of the first independently funded documentaries to achieve both festival acclaim and commercial success on a global scale.
This film’s status as an official selection at such prestigious industry happenings including the Sundance Film Festival, Jeonju International Film Festival (Korea), Doc Aviv (Israel), Thessaloniki Int’l Film Festival (Greece), and many others confirms the reception of its message. The Guardian included Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power in its list of best films of the year alongside Academy Award nominated productions as Steven Spielberg’s The Fablemans and Tar starring Cate Blanchett.
While she’s appreciative of the accolades received from the industry and the press, Samantha Gao stipulates that she signed on as part of this film to communicate with the general film-going public. Reaching these people is what means the most to her and fueled her extraordinary contributions to this documentary.
She declares, “I grew up watching films with my family and one of the things I learned is that movies have a very strong and subconscious influence on the audience and on society, from little things like what color of a nail polish is trending to how people behave in daily life. When Nina reached out to me for this documentary, I knew it was my mission to bring it to life. For years, film-making was dominated by male filmmakers but now it’s a golden era for female filmmakers to express their voice and vision. In order to create the future, we must first understand the past.”
“I believe with this documentary we can raise the question about the past regarding how the audience was mostly fed by the perspective of male filmmakers. Raising this question requires that the first step for filmmakers is in reviewing the past; only then can we create the future from a brand-new perspective. The thought of what this project could do for our future generation and future filmmakers, it’s why I decided to lend my skill to it.”
Writer: Mike Winston