Happy International Women's Day, 2022

Warning! This post contains some language which some readers may find offensive. You have been warned. 

Today is International Women's Day and it's over a century since its origin. The origin of International Women's Day dates back following the suffragette movement when women protested for the rights to vote and to have as much of a say as their opposite gender did. This, I personally regard, was one of the most welcoming changes in history.

In celebration to this particular occasion, I want to talk about a micro short film which I produced five years ago, and this is why I started this post with a disclaimer warning, because this particular short is called What Fucker Said That.

Those who read my previous posts will know that I was a member of a filmmaker's collective based in Leicestershire known as Seven/Five Productions. Once a year, the organisation set each member a task to create a twenty second short film in relation to a title each of us were given through a "pick-out-of-a-hat" activity. Each time, we would write a phrase of any sort and then place it in the Hat. Then our names were called out followed by whichever title we got. We could make our film and relate it to the phrase subtly or we could point out the obvious.

What Fucker Said That was one of the four films I produced as part of the challenge, the others being The Floor Is Our Indoor Ocean, The Apple My Apple Your Apple and Waiting To Wait. I have no idea why whoever wrote the phrase in the first place came up with it in the first place, but in the end, who was I to judge or complain? Some of us members did come up with some bizarre and/or amusing titles for a film, e.g. Quick Catch That Lunatic, Oh Shit I Forgot To Write One, I even remember one of the titles being I Need A Poo. Due to the profanity used in the title, it was a fairly risky move to produce What Fucker Said That, but I took into consideration that this was a challenge and I accepted.

You may be wondering what this particular film has to do with International Women's Day. When I took the yearly film-making challenge, it was near to International Women's Day at the time and it gave me a little bit of inspiration behind my writing. So before I shot the film, I wrote a short script which involves a lady named Hannah strolling down the town and minding my own business, only to be greeted rudely by a male loiterer named Jeremy who comments on
her features. This leads to Hannah to stand up for herself even quoting the title (technically inserting "just" between "fucker" and "said").

Earlier this week, I attended and filmed part of a small rally that was taking place in the city centre, organised by the Socialist Party. This was in aid of International Women's Day. One of the speakers stated that, despite the fact that many females have a say in society nowadays, that some women do still get victimised and some do get harassed physically and/or verbally for their bodies - by certain males who behave rudely. This is unfortunately true and, despite its humorous content, this is what I intended to point out when I made What Fucker Said That as you may notice when Hannah expresses her disgust with Jeremy after he makes obnoxious comments about her backside.

Displayed below is the original film from 2017;

In addition, I have recently uploaded the censored version which is displayed via the following link;

I would like to thank all who were involved including James Mullins for recording the sound, Jake Kelly for the camera operation and both Bef Smith and Matt Leeson for their portrayals of Hannah and Jeremy respectively.

As a matter of fact, this film was not the only time I had produced something in relation to the occasion. A couple of years later, I had produced a time travelling video with a fellow member of the Leicester Writer's Group. Do feel free to have a look;

It is with great pride that I wish this world a happy International Women's Day for 2022.

Before I end this post, I have just heard the sad news about Lynda Barron (1939-2022), known for her portrayal of Nurse Gladys Emmanuel in Open All Hours. I shall always have fond memories of that show how well she portrayed her character, being the former fiance of the series' protagonist Albert Arkwright and how she manages to take no guff from his constant harassment. It is unfortunate that she's not going to see this day. May Lynda rest in peace. xx