Grabbed by the ribbons in your hair
This visual essay aims to capture a small essence of my personal female experience. I wanted to focus on my gender as my expression of self as being a woman is something I genuinely enjoy about myself and love the many nuances of the world we get to experience. Unfortunately despite the many joys and unique perceptions we may have, there is also an ugly reality that has engraved its way into the common female experiences which is sexual assault and harassment. Globally, an estimated 736 million women have been subjected to sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both at least once in their life. This figure does not include sexual harassment which approximately one out of 3 women has experienced, making this a cruel normalcy for most women. My visual essay aims to emulate my personal female experience funneled through my own story of sexual assault and in how this experience has altered my perception of the world around me.
Challenge
The challenge was to create a 2-5 minute video essay exploring any aspect of 'who you are'—a profound and complex question in itself. This assignment pushed me to distill a meaningful, compelling, and creative representation of an aspect of my identity. With no team to collaborate with, I navigated every stage of production alone, overcoming logistical hurdles and refining my storytelling skills in the process
process
A major inspiration for my project was The Virgin Suicides, directed by Sofia Coppola, a filmmaker who first sparked my interest in cinematography. Coppola’s use of a pastel color palette to depict the tragedies of girlhood resonated deeply with me, capturing the duality of femininity—both its beauty and its burdens. I aimed to pay homage to her ability to evoke emotion through color and stylized shots. Another key reference was Petra Collins' photography book Discharge, which intimately explores the unspoken realities of girlhood through an ethereal, dreamlike lens. Collins's ability to transform traditionally uncomfortable subjects into artful storytelling inspired me to approach my narrative in a visually compelling way.
To emphasize showing rather than telling, I deliberately excluded dialogue, allowing visuals and music to drive the storytelling. I selected Grimes’ Oblivion, a seemingly upbeat synth-pop track with hauntingly dark lyrics about processing trauma after sexual assault. The line “See you on a dark night” encapsulates the lingering fear and psychological weight of such experiences, making it the perfect thematic companion to my film. Without spoken words, I relied on color and editing to communicate the emotional contrast—warm pink and orange hues for moments of safety and nostalgia, juxtaposed against eerie blue-green tones to evoke discomfort. Embracing imperfections in my cinematography and editing, I intentionally used jagged cuts and unstable shots to heighten the realism within the stylized, saturated world I created.