Tribeca 2022: Body Parts Review

This will be one of several reviews from this year’s Tribeca film Festival. To follow our coverage, click here.

The role of women and the depiction of female bodies on screen has evolved over the history of cinema which has been forced to adapt with the evolving times, going hand in hand with the women’s rights movement. Going from mere objects geared for the desire of men to well-rounded three-dimensional characters. That trajectory has been an interesting one to watch and Body Parts is an interesting documentary that chronicles that journey through the usual avenues of archival footage and interviews with film scholars and prominent actors, writers, directors, and producers over the years who discuss that evolution and how it relates to themselves and their own experiences as part of the film and/or television industries. Though some of the content won’t be for everyone, the film is one that will surely appeal to film buffs. Running at just over 80 minutes, one can’t help but want more as the topic is definitely worthy of a longer examination.

Body Parts certainly makes the most out of its running time by highlighting how far women have come and where they could ultimately go in the near future. Work is being done to help but there is still plenty of work left to be done. More and more women are getting seats at the table and being involved in the decision process of productions in the midst of what has been a male-dominated industry since the beginning while women are also taking charge and creating more and more of their own projects through their own production companies. Meanwhile, female roles are simply being better-written on a more consistent basis in order to reflect them in a more accurate way by better understanding the female perspective and their many intricacies. That being said, the depiction of sex on screen is another issue that has seen some advancement over the years. Playing a role in the objectification of women, the rise of intimacy coordinators have evened the playing field by helping to protect women by better advocating for them during productions. At the same time, actresses are gaining the power to negotiate terms in their contracts with unions also providing some protections though there is still work to do in that regard.

At the end of the day, Body Parts is meant to start a conversation and hopefully that conversation will continue.

still courtesy of Tribeca

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.