Eye For Film >> Movies >> My Big Beating Voice (2018) Film Review
My Big Beating Voice is an interesting and uplifting cross-over.
A short, 16minute film giving space to young Muslim and ethnic minority women to voice and to explore issues around gender inequality and race – and the intersection of the two.
It is a place where young women can grow their “big, beating voices”: first fruit – or at least early fruit - of a project put together with Amina Muslim Women’s Resource Centre to mark the 2018 centenary of women being able to vote in the UK for the first time.
The presentation is naïve, in the sense that the project has just made the time and place for these women to talk and let them go. The great thing about it is the sense and maturity that they bring to difficult debates. The sexism that results in young women being penalised for being too sassy, or for refusing to put out. The implicit racism in white English boys telling them to “go home” to their own country.
The individuals themselves are not on camera; rather, the project has chosen to illustrate their conversation with a series of still illustrations, so the overall effect is rather more that of talk or presentation with slides than conventional film.
In that sense, it feels unfair to review. This is what it is and if you would like to watch or listen to a thing that is hopeful in the midst of the current onslaught of political negativity, this is a great antidote to the wider doom and gloom.
Reviewed on: 24 Feb 2020
