No Democracy Here
“No Democracy Here” is a short film that deals with the topic of political domination. In it, Liad, a lefty human rights defender dominatrix re-educates her right-wing-leaning obedient submissive slaves to follow upstanding leftist ethos and morals like freedom of movement, economical justice, direct democracy, and human rights by using domination practices such as humiliation, doggy-training, coercion, and administration of pain. It’s all consensual!
On election day Liad decides to give her slaves the ultimate political domination session – outdoors and in public, where she teaches them about the pillars of democracy. At the end she forces them to engage in the ultimate political bdsm practice – voting, but only for the ‘correct’ political party, one that reflects her wishes and stands in stark opposition to theirs. The general public, which serves as a witness, interacts and reacts to the political domination and the questions that it poses in its own unpredictable ways. This film wishes to explore the meaning of ‘consent’ and ‘free will’, which are frequently in a bdsm-context, and apply them to the context of electoral democracy and public political processes.
The film was shot on the streets and the voting poles in Israel on and around election day.
My main motivation for doing this film is to use bdsm and the concept of political domination as an allegory on power relations in the context of an electoral democracy. Bdsm is an act committed in a sexual context that uses terms like ‘consent’ and ‘free will’ to illuminate the power relations between a dominant figure and a submissive. Representative democracy, however, whether if it occurs in Israel – a place that claims that it’s ‘the only democracy in the middle east’ or anywhere else that it occurs – also uses terms like ‘freedom of choice’ and ‘free will’ to describe it. But it hides the grave power relations that exist between those elected to power and those who vote for them. This film seeks to illuminate and challenge this set of power relations, which generally goes unchallenged, and to ask – ‘how democratic is this democracy?’ by all sorts of fun and unconventional means.
Here’s a trailer:
And another short teaser:
NO DEMOCRACY HERE
A film by Liad Hussein Kantorowicz
Directed by: Liad Hussein Kantorowicz
Editor: Imri Kahn
Production: Liad Hussein Kantorowicz
Mistress Liad: Liad Hussein Kantorowicz
Political Slaves: Yosef(a) Mekyton
Shlomi Fogel
DanVeg
Camera: Ayelet Albenda
Kerem Blumberg
Keren Manor
Translation: Imri Kahn
Soundtrack: Manuela Schininá
Sound Editor: Manuela Schininá
Color Grading: Pol Merchan
Additional Camera: Walid el Houri
Additional Still Photography: Tamir Lederberg
Keren Manor/ActiveStills
The film is dedicated to the memory of DanVeg
liadland 