Rock the Box

Electronic Dance Music (EDM) is the most lucrative sector of the music industry, but it's a world dominated by men, who represent 100 per cent of the genre's top earners. Rhiannon Rozier wanted to break into that world, but the Vancouver-raised DJ says she ran into the glass ceiling. She couldn't make it to the next level, so she did something she never thought she would do: she posed for Playboy. The rationale seems absurd, yet strangely familiar, which is what attracted filmmaker/journalist Katherine Monk to Rozier's story. "This is a movie about how our society assigns value to women," says Monk, who followed Rozier to a show in Fort McMurray, Alberta to capture the surreal lifestyle and daily reality of a working DJ. Through impressionistic images, verite montage and a bathroom sequence showing Rozier negotiating with her own reflection as she dons her performance persona, Rock the Box shows us one woman who rocked expectation by owning her own image, her own voice, and her own box.

Le secteur de l'EDM (electronic dance music) est le plus lucratif de l'industrie de la musique, mais il est dominé par les hommes, qui représentent 100 % de ses hauts salariés. Rhiannon Rozier voulait percer dans ce monde, mais la DJ de Vancouver s'est heurtée au plafond de verre. Ne pouvant pas franchir les barrières, elle a fait quelque chose contre toute attente : elle a posé pour Playboy. La raison semble absurde, mais étrangement familière, et c'est ce qui a intéressé la cinéaste et journaliste Katherine Monk à l'histoire de Rozier. « C'est un film sur la façon dont notre société attribue une valeur aux femmes », dit Monk, qui a suivi Rozier à un concert à Fort McMurray, en Alberta, pour capter le style de vie surréaliste et la réalité quotidienne du travail de DJ. Grâce à des images impressionnistes, un montage-vérité et une séquence dans la salle de bain montrant Rozier en train de négocier avec sa propre réflexion alors qu'elle entre dans son personnage, L'Électro au féminin nous révèle une femme qui est allée à contre-courant en forgeant sa propre image, sa propre voix et son propre cadre.

Raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank while her mother was in prison, Walaa dreams of becoming a policewoman in the Palestinian Security Forces (PSF). Despite discouragement from her family, even her beloved brother Mohammed, Walaa applies and gets in. But her own rebellious behaviour and complicated relationship with her mother are challenging, as are the circumstances under which she lives. Following Walaa from 15-21, with an intimate POV, What Walaa Wants is the compelling story of a defiant young girl navigating formidable obstacles, learning which rules to break and follow, and disproving the negative predictions from her surroundings and the world at large.