To be a woman in any industry often comes with battles of misogyny; the documentary Stuntwomen explores how these women make themselves seen in a job that requires them to remain in the shadows.
by Zakiya Rowe
See the North American premiere of feature documentary Stuntwomen on February 24 @5:30 PM at LOOK Cinemas (657 West 57th Street) as part of New York City’s 12th Annual Winter Film Awards International Film Festival. Tickets now on sale!
“As a stuntwoman you have to become just that, you have to become invisible”, Stuntwoman Petra Sprecher describes the job that’s all risk and sometimes no reward. Stuntwomen (Cascadeuses) is a French, English and Swiss-German Documentary directed by Elena Avdija that centers the life of three stuntwomen, Virginie Arnaud, Petra Sprecher and Estelle Piget.
The three women represent different stages of the stunt career; Arnaud is a seasoned stuntwoman of 20 to 30 years now transitioning to stunt coordinator. Sprecher is a stuntwoman and aspiring actress and Piget is a novice stuntwoman finding her footing in the industry. Though on different paths their commonality revolves around the mental and immensely physical hardships of their jobs.
Before the age of 50, Petra Sprecher underwent a major hip surgery forcing her to rehabilitate and consider other paths. Throughout Petra’s story, we see her take on Hollywood and mold herself into someone she believes can achieve her goals. The doc shows scenes of Petra in acting classes showing her struggle to find balance between being herself and leaning into a character. “All her life, she’s been trying to find her place in the universe, you know, a very white, middle class family, Hollywood, stunt and acting” says Avdija.
For Petra, identity is everything — growing up being the only black person in an all white household caused some feelings of isolation. Scenes with her family often demonstrate this multi-layered disconnect with her as the sole person of color but also a woman with a unique job. The audience sees Petra’s fighting spirit carry her through her obstacles, her ability to adapt and reform her life shines throughout the documentary as she finds new and unconventional ways to continue performing.
Avdija and her team took a note from Petra and learned to adapt and overcome for the shooting of this documentary. Rather than simply filming the stunts performed, they were looped into the action. “We are used to just getting out of the way, and for this we had to force ourselves to stay in the way until the very last second” explains Avdija. These methods were particularly useful in shooting many of the training and action based scenes of Virginie and Estelle.
Virginie and Estelle provide the perfect juxtaposition that tells the story of the stuntwoman from both sides. While Estelle and her friends question the capabilities of having a kid while pursuing the stunt path, Virginie can be seen practicing and training with her daughter. If Estelle does not see a link between gender and violence in movies, Virginie has clips from films that demonstrate otherwise. In fact, the Virginie story can demonstrate what it’s like for a highly competent woman to be ignored in her field. The audience learns that a stunt coordinator is typically a male held job; as Virginie attempts to move out of the stunt role and into coordinating, the men on her team do not make it easy. Virginie is tasked with the responsibility of breaking barriers for those like Estelle and setting an example for her already proud daughter Lola.
“When I met Virginie, we talked and I asked her about the roles she was getting as a stuntwoman … all the roles that she was telling me about were of women who are beaten up, thrown down the stairs, killed, kidnapped. And she was talking about it like “Oh I used to play being raped” says Avdija, mimicking the nonchalance.
For Avdija, creating the documentary was a 10-year process. The audience gets an 84 minute glimpse into the stories she strove so hard to tell, understanding how multifaceted the issues were in this work.
“At that moment, I felt that there was something more than just women in a man’s world, that there was also a question of how we portray violence.” she says. “There are people playing those parts. So I was like what do they feel? How was it for them to do that? and that’s when I thought, “Okay, I think it’s worth hanging on and doing a film about it even if it takes a long time”.
A significant scene in the film shows a stuntwoman describing the oppressive nature of their stunt training. A victim of abuse, the woman recounts how the suffocation from wrestling training triggered her as the positions reflected a time when she felt truly powerless. Estelle even recounts a time in which her fellow trainees felt confined by the headgear they wore and their inability to fight made them break down.
Though evidently traumatic to the mind and body, the women on this path are genuinely happy to be there. “It’s really true that they have this, this flame inside of them. And I think that’s really cool. And also that it’s important to show because everything is a paradox anyway, you know, so they love it, but it’s harming them,” says Avdija.
The audience can see this in Virginie’s eagerness to repeat a stunt for the cameras or Petra’s excitement when she talks to her mom about her new action scene. A group of Estelle’s fellow trainees even detail the dissatisfaction of their friends who are pursuing the “safer path” yet they are considerably more unhappy than the stuntwoman.
The film includes numerous instances of thought-provoking dialogue between the stuntwomen and has almost no exchanges between men, a fact Avdija is proud of. With a degree in Sociology, Avdija uses her knowledge as a framework for this film and how she views life, “If you are a feminist, the moment you start being a feminist, there is no coming back. You see the whole world in a new way, and you cannot unsee it, you know? So it’s a bit like that with sociology, the moment you start thinking about power relations, or working conditions, or, for example, the representation of violence on screen. Once you see the stuff, then it’s just there” she says.
A critical part of this film is demonstrating the strength of womanhood. “I think it’s important for women to see other women being empowered, and having intimacy,” says Avdija.
To Avdija, Stuntwomen is a feminist film. She hopes to one day see more woman to woman centered dialogue in films. “We need to make more of them and just show how it’s important to talk to each other, to give power to each other” she says.
Zakiya Rowe
Zakiya Rowe is a New York based writer with a knack for finding and telling compelling stories. A senior at New York University, she will graduate in 2024 with a degree in Journalism and Music.
About Winter Film Awards
New York City’s 12th Annual Winter Film Awards International Film Festival runs February 21-25 2024 in New York City and includes 82 outstanding films, a diverse mixture of animated films, documentaries, comedies, romances, dramas, horror films, music videos and web series of all lengths. Our five-day event is jam-packed with screenings and Q&A sessions at NYC’s LOOK Cinemas, six Education sessions/workshops and a variety of filmmaker networking events all coming to a glittering close on February 25 with our red-carpet gala Awards Ceremony.
Winter Film Awards is dedicated to showcasing the amazing diversity of voices in indie film and our 2024 lineup is 58% made by women and half by or about people of color. Filmmakers come from 23 countries and 41% of our films were made in the New York City area. 13 films were made by students and 26 are works from first-time filmmakers.
Winter Film Awards programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Promotional support provided by the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment.
Visit https://winterfilmawards.com/wfa2024/ for more information.
