LICA FESTIVAL 2024






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ARCHITECTURE
DESIGN
FILM
FINE ART
THEATRE




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    The Female Curse 
    @ thefemalecurse.film_


    The short experimental film The Female Curse aims to depict a subject often overlooked and dismissed in our modern society, silencing the voices and suffering of female victims. Often, victims of abuse stories remain untold and never get the justice they deserve. The film represents this issue visually and experimentally, using performance and projection to tell a story about modern womanhood, and their shared struggles, in a society created by men and for men, where women fall victims to domestic violence, sexual harrasment, rape or even murder. While creating this film, we focused solely on presenting real stories, coming from real victims of oppression both visually and auditorily. Real life crimes and different forms of abuse faced by women all around the world are presented using projection, using newspaper articles reinforcing the theme of the film, inviting the audiences to reflect upon an issue that affects over half of the world’s population. Throughout the film, real-life experiences that we have gathered from victims are incorporated into the soundtrack, as we aim to give their suffering a voice to be heard and understood by viewers. The Female Curse is not just a film, but also a medium to spread these stories to the world, hoping that the struggles of women can be recognised and we can rise from only being seen to being heard.
     
    Alexia Bazavan and Flora Ng (Writer & Director)

    This film was made as part of the module LICA359: Experimental Cinema: Theory and Practice.






    Film Synopsis 


    The Female Curse (2024) is a short experimental film that explores the shared inner thoughts and emotions faced by all women, and the shared suffering of being born a female and going through life as a woman. The three acts depict the different stages that women go through, from being innocent to damaged in patriarchal society. We aimed to explore the overlooked theme of feminism in the 21st Century and the challenges faced by females throughout the world. The Female Curse tries to shed light on a topic overlooked by the media, giving a voice to silenced victims. 

    Crew & Cast 



    Yun Wen - Main Dancer
    Yun is a graduating student majoring in film and minoring in theater. She started her acting journey in 2017, and she has been involved in multiple theater plays and short film productions throughout these years. She enjoys using the different characters that she plays in front of the camera to explore herself.

    Siwen Huang - Dancer
    Siwen is interested in photography, with experiences as cinematographer, sound designer, gaffer, actress and behind the scene photographer in various short film and theatre projects.
    Alexia Bazavan - Director/ Production Designer

    Alexia is a third-year Film student with a minor in Theatre Studies at Lancaster University. She has been recently interested in Directing and tried to gain experience in this role by writing and directing 3 short films, Weeping Willow (2024), The Female Curse (2024) and Psychosis (2024). Along with directing, she has a strong interest in production design, costume design, makeup, and SFX makeup as she is highly interested in creating complex visuals in movies. On top of directing her short films, she had the opportunity to work in almost 10 other short films, in different roles, such as production designer, makeup artist, behind-the-scenes photographer, boom operator and costume designer. 

    “After graduating from Lancaster University I plan on trying to start a career in the British film industry, my dream being to work everyday on a movie set.”
    Flora Ng - Director/Editor
    Flora is a final-year Film Studies student who is devoted to bringing cinematic visions to life. Throughout the course of her studies she has participated in a number of short film productions taking up a range of roles but mainly as producer and editor, some of her works include reminiscence (2023), a multi-festival selected narrative short, Psychosis (2024), and White Daffodil (2024). She is currently working on her upcoming short film, Behind The Smile (2024).

    Ewan McManus - Dancer
    My name is Ewan, I'm a Film and Creative Writing student, I was in some school plays but I'm a pretty inexperienced actor.

    Bruno Ruiz-Huerta Martinez - Dancer
    I'm a Fine Art & Film major who has done editing, acting, and production design in previous student short films.







    StillsTrailer






    Check out our other work!

    Alexia Bazavan

    Flora Ng