Flowing Bodies: Autoethnographies of Desire in "Christmas on Earth", "Fuses" and "Je, tu, il, elle"

Abstract

This article explores how three women filmmakers express their ways of understanding and experiencing pleasure, based on a comparative study of Christmas on Earth (Barbara Rubin, 1963), Fuses (Carolee Schneemann, 1964–67) and Je, tu, il, elle (Chantal Akerman, 1974). By filming the subculture to which they belong or presenting themselves in the sexual act in a way that emulates ritual, these filmmakers recognize their own sexuality in opposition to the model that relegates the woman to the role of muse. Drawing on Artaud’s concept of ritual and his “Body without Organs,” this analysis posits the possibility of the concept of “flowing bodies,” referring to bodies in motion that affirm their own pleasure, andproposes to describe the three films explored here as “autoethnographies of desire.”