Discussion of The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open

2015 (105 min)

Directors: Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn

Discussant: Helen DeVinney, PsyD

*** Film must be viewed prior to event.***

Date: April 21, 2023

Time: 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm

Via Zoom

Fees:

I do not need CME/CE                                       $0.00

1.5 CME/CE                                                          $30.00

Registration Link: https://wbcp.memberclicks.net/dc-cinema-4-21-23#!/

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: April 19, 2023

Presentation: This presentation will consider how Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn‘s The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open subverts traditional narratives of coloniality, subjugation, and rescuing. The film replicates a sense of feeling trapped through the use of real-time transitioning technique, and in its unflinching gaze, it challenges the viewer to consider who is oppressed/repressed/in need of emancipation. The film juxtaposes the traditional view of intimate partner violence as one of perpetrator/victim with the oppressive forces of coloniality, whiteness, and patriarchy. The film opens an opportunity to consider the role of the clinical situation and to challenge the therapist’s vulnerability to lapse into rescuer/all-knowing; additionally, the talk will explore how coloniality splits off its violence into the racialized other and will invite examination of how those who are subjugated are reified as “victims” in an effort to preserve and instantiate the power and status of those performing and conforming to various interlocking systems of oppression. The talk will conclude with considerations for how examination of Indigenous wisdom and colonial violence are relevant to the field of mental health and the analytic/therapeutic situation.