Intentional understatement draws attention to this poster from 1966 protesting the war in Vietnam.
GINNY'S ENTERPRISE (2023) is set in October 1967, five years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, and on the day of the massive protest against the Vietnam War in a march on the Capitol in Washington D.C. This political unrest and dissonance of the Cold War hangover of xenophobia, racism and sexism left a huge mark on a generation of girls. That and the patriarchy, which set a different standard for girls and boys, which potentially led to exploitation and coercion of girls in their desperate wish to be an equal.
My films explore the intergeneration traumas and effects of wars - imperialistic wars like WWI and WWII that caused PTSD a hundred years ago that is still being felt today in families of those afflicted firsthand by PTSD or 'shell shock' as it was described in the aftermath of the world wars, the Korean War and as a hangover during the Cold War. The Cold War itself created anxiety and an existential crisis, when children lost hope for a future knowing that at any moment a world leader might push a button and 'POOF' we'd all be annihilated by a nuclear conflict. Much like a those lost in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Complex PTSD, something until recently I wasn't aware of, names the condition that I experienced as a child during the sixties. It's what young Ginny experiences - double standards where boys have all the privileges, denial of equal status, prolonged withholding of affection, and conditional love (you only receive it if you follow strict rules and the rules are different for boys). Ginny's emotional needs were not being met by her family, so she escaped into her imagination to find companionship and solace on her own terms. She also found unlimited possibilities in her freedom to roam the neighbourhood with her friend. Until she realizes when she returns to her home that her freedom is still bounded by the unfair restrictions placed upon her for no other reason than she was born a girl.
Today, in the Gaza Strip -a new war incited by the Hamas - continues a hotly contested land occupation orchestrated by historic world leaders without full consent of the inhabitants. It is yet another iteration of the intergenerational traumas of the past generations resurfacing in the present generation. Generations that were denied the ability to reach their full potential through forces imposed on them by oppressive leaders and systems. My heart goes out to those affected directly and in the future, indirectly.
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