Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov’s internationally appraised documentary Honeyland’s (2019) story revolves around a female bee-hunter, who lives in a remote mountain village of Macedonia. Following the film’s leading character, the documentary reveals the seemingly minor dynamics of her routine, approach to labor, and way of being. Hatidze and her isolated serene life with her bedridden mother is threatened by the Sams family as they start sharing the same resources of the earth with their profoundly different approaches. Honeyland subtly juxtaposes the ecofeminist embodiment of Hatidze with uncaring practices of Sams family that prioritize unlimited exploitation and profitmaking. The epitome of Hatidze’s engagement with the world is based on not taking more than one needs, sharing the products with earth back with extreme care, harmony and dialogue. The character approaches to world in an indiscernible, respectful and minimalistic way. However, the Sams family’s practices rely on normalized “collateral damage” that dismisses biodiversity. The father figure is characterized by an ideology of unlimited resource exploitation, habitual mansplaining, and a paternalistic stance toward nature, animals, children, and women. It is suggested that through the film’s distant yet critical observational style, Hatidze and her self-contained minimalist position unveils normalizing practices and discourses constructed by anthropocentricism that locate humanity over all other species. This presentation centralizes on Hatidze’s ecofeminist ethics and her embodied engagement with nature, while highlighting how the documentary itself applies slow and minimalistic narrative devices of filmmaking to reflect her balanced and minor, yet willful way of life.

Authors:
Funda Kaya, Bahcesehir University, Tuerkiye

About the Presenter(s)
Funda Kaya is currently an Assist. Prof. in the Department of Cinema and Television at Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Tuesday Schedule

Bookmark