Private Project

PHASE

We decided to call-out the less visible and seemingly innocent discourses that minimize romantic love between women. PHASE is a two-pronged [film + poem] response to those who tell queer women "it's just a phase."

PHASE (poem)
something is wrong
this is temporary
sweet but not serious
curious but not aware
ill but arousing
a beautiful phase
drowning in tears, not their own
fleeting, confused
oscillating between feeling and numbness
most depictions of confused women don't reflect confused women
they reflect a confused gaze
a dirty lens
the dirt is invisible
it’s called discourse
a cocktail of history, stories, and science
accounts sans accountability
phase is your film, of which we wanted no part
what is seen through this frame is not reality
it is a view
a view that won’t define or lasso our experience
this gaze is not required
this gaze may seem loving
this gaze deceives you
what is a phase, is this gaze
not our experience
we politely exit
in our absence, your frame becomes visible
see you in the future

  • Ania Catherine
    Director
  • Samira Mahboub
    Director
  • Ania Catherine
    Key Cast
  • Samira Mahboub
    Key Cast
  • Delaram Pourabdi
    Director of Photography
  • Delaram Pourabdi
    Editor
  • Laura Angelone
    Hair/Makeup
  • Madeline Hodges
    Production Assistant
  • Project Type:
    Experimental
  • Genres:
    Experimental, queer, performance art, feminist, women, lesbian, lgbt, performance, surrealism, poetry, gender
  • Runtime:
    2 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    March 21, 2016
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Ania Catherine, Samira Mahboub

SAMANIA is an artist/scholar duo composed of Samira Mahboub and Ania Catherine. Samira (Germany) and Ania (USA) met in 2013 while pursuing master’s degrees at the London School of Economics Gender Institute. In 2014, they collaborated on their first film, cloth, which was featured in the International Museum of Women’s exhibition “Imagining Equality” and in the Huffington Post’s “5 Amazing Ways Women and Girls are Breaking Gender Stereotypes Worldwide”. Together they combine their creative work (performance, film, photography) and academic interests (gender, coloniality, sexuality) to translate sociopolitical subjects into a digestible visual form. In addition, Samira works in New York as a model represented by Wilhelmina, and Ania in Los Angeles as an artist and choreographer.

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