Florencia Aliberti, Caterina Cuadros Sbert and Gala Hernàndez

Towards the 60s, the arrival of super 8 and 16 mm cameras meant a turning point for image practices and a key moment for new genres/formats to emerge, such as film diaries or home movies. The possibilities for access made possible by these new technologies allowed a movement in the ways of production belonging to the cinema industry —from large film sets to the inside of houses, from epic stories to daily life situations, from narrative time to experiential time. In this new context, still within the borders of film production, many women decided to take their cameras and turn them towards themselves. This essay offers a journey through some works that approach the subject of the self-portrayed female body and how —through the self-portrait genre— women have developed new ways of (re) writing themselves in picture. This work travels down different emotional states and places, gathering images from filmmaker women who, as a gesture of self-portrait, try to rid themselves of the masculine view that controls the masculine approach towards the female body. Images where the body looks at itself as an area to reflect on the relationships and conflicts around it, paying attention to daily life actions and exploring subjects like intimacy, sexuality, masturbation or maternity. This re-signification of the feminine subject invites to a new space-time conception of the image, where shot length, waiting times, dead times or intimate daily situations symbolize a break-up with the representation techniques from a device so extremely masculinized as cinema was (and is).