lacuna

"lacuna" is an appropriated media piece that provides commentary on the control and suppression of the femme narrative. Femme identifying artists are consistently muted, exploited, and/or abused inside artistic system that are still primarily facilitated by and for cis white heterosexual men. Societal standards and accepted behaviours continue to curb and repress the lives, experiences, and narratives of womxn and femme presenting people. Told via the lens of the filmmaker, "lacuna" traverses the interval between personal experience and global issue by ruminating over the cavity these ideologies leaves in the fabric of the individual artist, and the overarching experience of femme presenting people.

  • Amber Rose McNeill
    Director
    Normal Porn for Normal People, Andrew Ginger/Likes Dogs
  • Amber Rose McNeill
    Writer
    Death and Tacos, Andrew Ginger/Likes Dogs
  • Amber Rose McNeill
    Producer
    Death and Tacos, Normal Porn for Normal People
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Experimental, Appropriated Media, Feminist Film
  • Runtime:
    4 minutes 27 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 20, 2021
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Serbest International Film Festival
    Kishinev
    Moldova, Republic of
    September 5, 2022
    European Premiere
    Semi-finalist
  • Toronto International Women Film Festival
    Toronto, Ontario
    Canada
    February 15, 2022
    Canadian Premiere
    Official Selection
  • New York International Women Festival
    New York, New York
    United States
    October 3, 2021
    North American Premiere
    Finalist - Best Woman Directed Short
Director Biography - Amber Rose McNeill

Amber Rose McNeill is an Australian film director and appropriated media artist based in Wisconsin. Her work focuses on societal attitudes towards violence, dark psychology and challenging normative concepts of sexuality. Amber Rose frequently examines the relationship that media and popular culture play in the consumption of violence within western society. Her current projects serve to rework traditional structures within the horror genre to further queer narratives in addition to creating more films made via the female, and gender queer, lens.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

I wanted to create a piece of cinema that spoke to the challenges and experiences of women and femme presenting people, both within the film industry, academia, and in life. At the tail end of an abusive relationship, I concentrated the myriad of raw emotion I was left with and the loss of control I felt into this film. I wanted to not only speak for myself, but as a larger voice for the exploitation, abuse and sexual objectification that women and femme presenting people consistently experience. We, as a society, always ask why women stay in abusive situations, but rarely confront men for why they subject us to abuse. This film is a love letter to women and femme presenting folks that loudly states, "I see you. I believe you. I validate you. I understand you". And requires that we hold the men that abuse their power and abuse others accountable.