KILLFACE (USA, 16 min) is a sensory, sound-centric meditation on female strength, stamina, and struggle through the visual metaphor of a female fighter.
SYNOPSIS
KILLFACE (USA, 16 min) is a sensory, sound-centric meditation on female strength, stamina, and struggle through the visual metaphor of a female fighter. Filmed up close, with no narration, and very little dialogue, the film follows featherweight Muay Thai champion Natalie “Kill Face” Morgan’s ‘fight camp’ training. Privileging the sound of Morgan’s breath and keeping her centered in the frame, KILLFACE intentionally limits what we are able to see and hear, and invites audiences to experience an exhaustive and visceral exploration of power. It also puts attention to how gendered violence echoes within the act of observing women engaged in combat, even when it's not present in the story.
Director Statement
KILLFACE is a conceptual project at the intersection of documentary, experimental film and art. It's intended to create an immersive experience. My hope is viewers feel butted up against Morgan’s power. To watch and listen intently. To be impressed by her stamina, compelled to track her movements on screen. To feel claustrophobic, and then lost, and then found. To find a sense of patience in their observation. To be immersed in her breath. To feel trapped when she is. To feel nauseous. To feel elated. To break free when she does. I want folks to root for Morgan, not because they want her to win, but because they see themselves in her struggle towards strength.
I made the film in response to tired tropes about female strength and what compels women to become strong. The film doesn’t concern itself with exceptionalism. Morgan doesn’t win or lose. And it doesn’t provide evidence about why a woman requires strength. It’s not that the project doesn’t value her track record, it's just interested in something different. We fully center Morgan in the frame and no one else, we embed ourselves in her process including the in between moments, and reference the women makers behind the lens by heightening their point of view and their gaze.
What happens when we share a story about a woman building power without justifying why? What can we feel and learn anew through an immersive observation of female strength?
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Director/Producer Kate Trumbull-LaValle
Kate Trumbull-LaValle is a Peabody award winning documentary filmmaker and visual artist with a passion for telling stories about rebellious women, motherhood, labor, art, and the hybridity of identity. Her critically acclaimed debut feature documentary, OVARIAN PSYCOS (2016), about an unapologetic Latinx bicycle collective from Eastside Los Angeles, premiered at SXSW and Hot Docs and had a national broadcast on PBS' Independent Lens in 2017. Kate directed two one-hour broadcast films for public television: ARTIST AND MOTHER (Artbound/KCET) and CITY RISING (KCET). Both films were nominated for LA Area Emmy’s, and both films won LA Press Awards. In 2019, Kate was a co-producer for the groundbreaking 5-part PBS historical series, ASIAN AMERICANS (2020), for which she received a Peabody Award. Kate’s work has been supported by California Humanities, ITVS Open Call, ITVS Diversity Development Fund, Pacific Pioneer Fund, Women in Film, Sundance Institute, Working Films, the International Documentary Association, Studio IX, and Women Make Movies. She has screened her work at over fifty festivals internationally including SXSW, Hot Docs, the New York Human Rights Film Festival, Ambulante, MASS MoCA, Milano Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, and New Orleans Film Festival to name a few. In addition to directing and producing long-form films, Kate also directs creative nonfiction broadcast and digital content for commercials, nonprofits and social issue campaigns. She teaches documentary film at California State University, Long Beach, is a UC Berkeley Human Rights Fellow (2010), and graduated with an M.A. from the Social Documentation Program at UCSC.
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Women Make Movies (WMM), Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit media arts organization registered with the New York Charities Bureau of New York State and accepts charitable donations on behalf of this project. Your donation will be spent by the filmmaker(s) toward the production and completion of this media project. No services or goods are provided by Women Make Movies, the filmmaker(s) or anyone else associated with this project in exchange for your charitable donation.
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