WATCH TRAILER

Dish

Women, Waitressing and the Art of Service

A film by Maya Gallus

Canada | 2010 | 58 minutes | Color | DVD | French/Japanese/English | Subtitled | Order No. 111043

Host a screening

SYNOPSIS

Why do women bring your food at local diners, while in high-end establishments waiters are almost always men? DISH, by Maya Gallus, whose acclaimed
GIRL INSIDE (2007) won Canada’s Gemini Award for documentary directing, answers this question in a delicious, well-crafted deconstruction of waitressing and our collective fascination with an enduring popular icon. Digging beyond the obvious, Gallus, who waited tables in her teens, explores diverse dynamics between food servers and customers, as well as cultural biases and attitudes they convey. Her feminist analysis climbs the socio-economic ladder—from the bustling world of lower-end eateries, where women prevail as wait staff, to the more genteel male-dominated sphere of haute cuisine. Astute, amusing observations from women on the job in Ontario’s truck stop diners, Montreal’s topless"sexy restos," a Parisian super-luxe restaurant, and Tokyo’s fantasy "maid cafés", as well as male customers’ telling comments, disclose how gender, social standing, earning opportunities, and working conditions intersect in the food service industry.

PRESS

“…a very successful film, conveying a lot of cross-cultural information while making a number of salient points of service, gender, and society.”

David Eller Anthropology Review Database

“Recommended. Offer[s] an interesting glimpse of social and economic factors within the restaurant world.”

Video Librarian

"Filled with sharp observations about the social dynamics of customer relations and workplace solidarity, the film should be an excellent starting point for discussions of gendered and class-stratified labor."

Fran Michel Women & Gender Studies, Wilamette University

"DISH delves into… gender, power, and the art of service… What’s revealed are the fantasies, desires, and prejudices projected onto women servers - including those of substitute wife, girlfriend, and personal servant."

Hot Docs International Film Festival

"Dish is a highlight of Hot Docs. Beautifully shot with a clear line of sight to point and purpose, fast-paced with impressive attention to detail." —

XTRA Magazine

SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS

  • Vermont International Film Festival
  • Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montreal
  • DOK Leipzig
  • Citizen Jane Film Festival
  • Hot Docs International Film Festival
  • Bergen International Film Festival, Norway
  • Cuenca International Film Festival, Ecuador
  • St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival, Canada

ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)

Maya Gallus

Maya Gallus is an award-winning filmmaker whose work has screened around the world, including the Boston Musuem of Art, Canada House UK, Toronto International Film Festival, Hot Docs, Melbourne Film Festival, MostraRIO, Feminale Festival, Fetisch Film Festival, Thessalonika Film Festival, One WorldHuman Rights Festival, Dok Leipzig, Bergen International Film Festival, Cuenca Women in Direction, FIFA - Films Sur L’art, Montreal World Film Festival, RIDM - Montreal, Yorkton, St John’s Women’s Festival, Citizen Jane , the TFMS Film Series, DOXA, Atlantic Film Festival, Frameline, New Fest, Out Fest, Reel Out, Image et Nation, Ladyfest UK, QDoc, QFilm Festival Indonesia, and Singapore International Film Festival,

Her first film, ELIZABETH SMART; ON THE SIDE OF THE ANGELS, was a hybrid documentary-drama about the author of By Grand Central Central Station I Sat Down And Wept. The film launched at the Toronto International Film Festival and won three Golden Sheaf Awards for Best Production of the Festival, Best Documentary and Best Editing; it was also nominated for a Gemini (Canada’s Emmy Awards) for Best Direction.

Her follow up documentary EROTICA: A JOURNEY INTO FEMALE SEXUALITY, featuring the final interview with 90-year-old Pauline Réage, the mysterious author of Story of O, as well as interviews with the notorious French dominatrix Catherine Robbe-Grillet and performer Annie Sprinkle, among others, launched at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released theatrically in Toronto, San Francisco, San Sebastian and Tokyo. EROTICA was nominated for a Genie (Canada’s Oscars) for Best Feature-Length Documentary as well as Best Arts Documentary at Hot Docs.

GIRL INSIDE, a documentary portrait of 23-year-old Madison, transitioning to her female self over three years with the help of her 80-year-old grandmother, won a Gemini for Best Direction In A Documentary and was nominated for the prestigious Donald Brittain Gemini Award for Best Social Political Documentary.

Her Gemini-nominated feature documentary, DISH-WOMEN, WAITRESSING & THE ART OF SERVICE, a portrait of working women in the service industry, from North American diners, to topless restos, to Japanese fantasy maid cafes, to high end Parisian restaurants, was launched to critical acclaim at Hot Docs.

THE MYSTERY OF MAZO DE LA ROCHE, exploring the love story behind the fiction of one of the most famous, yet secretive women writers of the 20th century, is her second hybrid documentary-drama, nominated for three Canadian Screen Awards and recipient of the Golden Sheaf Award for Best Social Issue Documentary.

Her most recent film, co-directed with Justine Pimlott, is DERBY CRAZY LOVE.
Other credits include co-directing and co-producing the Gemini-nominated PUNCH LIKE A GIRL, with Justine Pimlott, about amateur women’s boxing; co-producing and writing the award-winning FAG HAGS: WOMEN WHO LOVE GAY MEN, and co-producing CAT CITY. (04/14)

YOU MIGHT ALSO BE INTERESTED IN

Derby Crazy Love

This popular documentary from Toronto filmmakers Maya Gallus and Justine Pimlott takes viewers inside the adrenaline-fueled phenomenon of women’s roller derby. With over 1,400 leagues worldwide, it is now the fastest growing women’s sport. DERBY CRAZY LOVE accompanies Montreal’s top team, New Skids on the Block, on its exhilarating journey to regional championships, where they face off in a pitched battle against U.K. powerhouse, London Rollergirls, and reigning world champions, New York’s Gotham Girls. New Skids players and their British and U.S. rivals share stories of being powerful women in traditional sports, along with insights about derby’s recent rebirth, after decades of decline, as a vibrant, original expression of third wave feminism and Amazon-like physicality rooted in punk’s colorful DIY counterculture. Deftly tackling issues of masculinity, femininity, aggression, body image, queer identity and gender norms, this fast-paced yet reflective film captures the spirit of community, inclusiveness, and sisterhood at roller derby’s core today.
Learn more

Girl Inside

Following 26-year-old Madison during a crucial three years of her transition, GIRL INSIDE is a beautiful film that tracks her emotional, intellectual and spiritual journey of self-discovery that is as important as – if not more than – the physical journey of hormones and surgery. Sharing the spotlight is Vivien, Madison’s glamorous 80-year-old grandmother, who has taken on the job of advising her on all things feminine. While Vivien's attempts to school Madison in old-fashioned codes of fashion and behavior are often hilarious, the juxtaposition of two vastly different experiences of womanhood, from very different generations, raises profound issues about the nature of gender, femininity and sexuality. Sometimes funny, sometimes painful, this heartwarming coming of age story is both an intimate portrait and a thoughtful exploration of what it means to be a woman. Recommended for courses in transgender and queer studies, gender studies, women’s studies and sociology.
Learn more

Waging Change

WAGING CHANGE shines a light on an American struggle hidden in plain sight: the women-led movement to end the federal tipped minimum wage for restaurant workers.
Learn more

Pain, Passion and Profit

From the director of Bend it Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice, PAIN, PASSION AND PROFIT is an inspirational look at women entrepreneurs through the eyes of the Body Shop founder, Anita Roddick, who has always maintained a strong commitment to the idea of “profits with principles.” Several women in Africa who have successfully developed small-scale business enterprises in their own communities provide a focus for Roddick to pose questions about how the role and status of women affects their enterprises and how those enterprises provide a means of community and economic development for women. PAIN, PASSION AND PROFIT gives an in-depth look at global feminism and economic development as well as a personal and spirited view of the connections between the experiences of women entrepreneurs in the First and Third Worlds.
Learn more

From Bedside to Bargaining Table

This inspiring documentary looks at nursing from the nurse's point of view, encouraging healthcare professionals to work together to change their poor working conditions and gain self-respect. With gratitude to the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program at NYU, a digital preservation copy of this film now available for exhibition! Please contact [email protected] for more information.
Learn more

Hammering It Out

“This spirited documentary spotlights the experience of women in the building trades, specifically those women involved in the Century Freeway Women's Employment Project in Los Angeles. Framed by the story of a community-initiated lawsuit that resulted in hundreds of women getting trained to work on a billion-dollar freeway project, the film evolves into a primer on the feminist issues of equality, identity, and changing gender roles. Powerful testimonials by the women workers tell stories of the often unspoken gendered specifics of discrimination in the building trades: sexual harassment at the jobsite; negotiations about childcare and worker benefits; and the translation of affirmative action policy to the traditional practices of contractors and the historical conventions of the male worksite. The film demonstrates the importance of providing opportunity, embracing equity, and abandoning sexist traditions which deny talented women workers the right to support their families on a par equal with men. It also serves as a cautionary tale that warns that unless laws, policies, and conventions are changed, women workers may be forced out of their chosen professions, like the Rosie the Riveters, by bias and expediency.” Joseph Boles, Northern Arizona University
Learn more

Some Real Heat

SOME REAL HEAT explores the small and relatively new world of female firefighters in San Francisco and their upward climb to gain access to a male-dominated field. Armed with axes, chainsaws, muscle, heart and determination, six daring women demonstrate how they single-handedly turn gender roles upside down by putting their lives on the line everyday in one of the riskiest jobs around. As they passionately talk about the tools of the trade, overcoming their fears and helping others, they reveal the fascinating history of women fire fighters and the gender bias that barred them from officially entering the U.S. Fire Department until 1974. They also explain the important role women paramedics play in fire departments and the surprising number of medical emergencies that they attend to on a weekly basis – a number that far outweighs actually putting out fires. Uncovering the myth and reality of this dangerous profession, this inspiring piece intimately delves into the strength and character that distinguishes these women as true modern-day heroes.
Learn more

Ferry Tales

Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary Short, FERRY TALES exposes a secret world that exists in the powder room of the Staten Island Ferry.
Learn more

The Phantom of the Operator

This wry and delightful found-footage film reveals a little-known chapter in labor history: the story of female telephone operators’ central place in the development of global communications. With an eye for the quirky and humorous, Caroline Martel assembles a dazzling array of clips – more than one hundred remarkable, rarely seen industrial, advertising and scientific management films produced in North America between 1903 and 1989 by Bell and Western Electric – and transforms them into a dreamlike montage documentary. As the first agents of globalization, this invisible army of women offered a way for companies to feminize and glamorize what was a highly stressful, underpaid and difficult job. Not merely "Voices with a Smile," telephone operators were shooting stars in a universe of infinite progress, test pilots for new management systems, and the face of shrewd public relations campaigns. As the work of operators has been eclipsed by the advent of automated systems, this artful piece of labor history also offers an insightful comment on women’s work, industrialization and communications technology. Refreshing and hilarious, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERATOR provides a wry yet ethereal portrait of human society in the technocratic age.
Learn more

Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night

In this insightful documentary, filmmaker Sonali Gulati explores complex issues of globalization, capitalism and identity through a witty and personal account of her journey into India’s call centers. Gulati, herself an Indian immigrant living in the US, explores the fascinating ramifications of outsourcing telephone service jobs to India—including how native telemarketers take on Western names and accents to take calls from the US, UK and Australia. A fresh juxtaposition of animation, archival footage, live action shots and narrative work highlight the filmmaker’s presence and reveal the performative aspects of her subjects. With fascinating observations on how call centers affect the Indian culture and economy, NALINI BY DAY, NANCY BY NIGHT raises important questions about the complicated consequences of globalization.
Learn more

Ella es el Matador (She is the Matador)

For Spaniards—and for the world—nothing has expressed their country’s traditionally rigid gender roles more powerfully than the image of the male matador. So sacred was the bullfighter’s masculinity to Spanish identity that a 1908 law barred women from the sport. Visually stunning and beautifully crafted, ELLA ES EL MATADOR (She is the Matador) reveals the surprising history of the women who made such a law necessary, and offers fascinating profiles of two female matadors currently in the arena, the acclaimed Maripaz Vega and neophyte Eva Florencia. These women are gender pioneers by necessity, confronting both bull and social code. But what emerges through this mesmerizing film is their truest motivation—a sheer passion for bullfighting, in the pursuit of a dream.
Learn more

Transnational Tradeswomen

Inspired by organizers at the Beijing Conference on Women in 1995, former construction worker Vivian Price spent years documenting the current and historical roles of women in the construction industry in Asia – discovering several startling facts. Capturing footage that shatters any stereotypes of delicate, submissive Asian women, Price discovers that women in many parts of Asia have been doing construction labor for centuries. But conversations with these women show that development and the resulting mechanization are pushing them out of the industry. Their stories disturb the notion of “progress” that many people hold and show how globalization, modernization, education and technology don’t always result in gender equality and the alleviation of poverty. Celebrating a range of women workers – from a Japanese truck driver, to two young Pakistani women working on a construction site in Lahore, to a Taiwanese woman doing concrete work alongside her husband – this film deftly probes the connections in their experiences. In a segment exploring the history of the Samsui women in Singapore (Chinese women who were recruited as construction laborers in the 1920's until they lost their jobs to mechanization in the 1970’s) unique archival footage and interviews with surviving Samsui offer an importation perspective on the historical and global scope of women workers’ struggles.
Learn more
Shopping Cart