At Queen’s Film Theatre in Belfast, Neil Cadieux took in three bold and experimental documentaries presented by aemi as part of Docs Ireland.
With this wonderfully offbeat programme, aemi and Docs Ireland delivered a thought-provoking triple feature of works. aemi, an Irish resource organisation providing platforms and pathways for film artists, curated films with images ranging from a re-enacted stick-up to the bloodshot eyes of a female model. Projected on Screen 2 at Queen’s Film Theatre, each work engaged with performance to a degree and explored the boundaries of documentary filmmaking. Ending with the audience-engaging premiere of Sarah Browne’s The Laughable, this wild, globe-spanning screening was equal parts frightening and inspiring.
Acting Woman
Roxy Farhat, Zhala Rifat, Acting Woman, 2017, Sweden, 5 minutes
In Roxy Farhat’s Acting Woman, two women prepare to hold a single pose and smile for five minutes. Shot in one take, the film highlights the women’s escalating struggle to adhere to their pre-directed and conceived pose. Slowly and deliberately, the act of modelling is dissected by Farhat, who employs a looming sense of otherness. This increases its intensity in real time and marks its imposition visually through the changing physicality of each performer. Subsequently, the mere act of blinking becomes a radical sensory event, as does the twitching of shoulders and lips.
The single shot prioritises the physical strain of performance over anything else. Echoes of visual taboo seep into the five-minute run-time and onto the pair of on-screen female bodies. Through this approach, Farhat creates discussion on the ethics of modelling in the face of the body’s limitations, without employing a single word. Similarly, the omniscient gaze of the camera adds a deeply uncomfortable, voyeuristic quality to the work, offering fascinating, silent ruminations on the omniscience of the camera. In a powerful moment, a long line of saliva drips from a performer’s mouth. This shot alone creates infinite avenues through which the perversity of performance and film’s role in shaping bodily interpretation can be questioned.
By challenging the way female subjects are captured, Acting Woman somehow finds time to deconstruct spectatorship and the documentary form. Nobly, Farhat succeeds in this exploration by refusing to provide a conclusion to the film’s meditations or narrative. Instead, the unbroken, extended shot of two women cuts firmly to black.
BAN♥️ITS
Omar Chowdhury, BAN♥️ITS, 2024, Bangladesh, Belgium, South Korea, 18 minutes
BAN♥️ITS, directed by Omar A. Chowdhury, transports the viewer to a lawless eastern border between Bangladesh and India. The short details a day in the life of proud, self-described bandits who frequent these borders, adopting a dogmatic, pseudo-Robin Hood ideology. Brilliantly, the moral code these men abide by is entirely based on Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight.
Fiction, reality and moral frameworks rapidly switch priorities during the film’s run-time, to a dizzyingly pleasing effect. This disorientation extends to the film’s cinematography, which is contrast-heavy and shot entirely in infrared. Complementary to the film’s narrative, these visuals make for a fitting homage to Harmony Korine’s infrared-drenched AGGRO DR1FT and the equally distressing meddling of fiction and reality seen in 2024’s Baby Invasion.
In a neon-bathed jungle, the film’s nameless protagonist waxes poetic on the nature of banditry. He details the Joker’s approach to villainy, regarding this ethos as morally applicable to his mission of stealing for himself and the poor. In a moment where he details his adherence to the Joker’s ‘Agent of Chaos’ moniker, Chowdhury’s subject comes across as too verbose to be taken wholly seriously. The effect of this hilariously delivered monologue may or may not be intentional, adding further layers to the film’s fluid blend of realism and fantasy.
Whether or not this man is lying about his exploits or is hamming up his performance for the camera does not matter. Be it verbal threats to the camera crew or dubious re-enactments of crimes, BAN♥️ITS is not remotely interested in an objective truth. Instead, Chowdhury displays the thrill of unchallenged performance and the darkly comic moment where reality intervenes. Within a sea of petty crime and glow-in-the-dark Adidas logos lies a morally complex yet brief peer into the unknown.
The Laughable
Sarah Browne, The Laughable, 2025, Ireland, UK, 33 minutes
Directed by Sarah Browne, The Laughable is an experimental documentary in which six disabled comedians perform stand-up comedy. In the absence of a laugh track, the subjectivity of humour within the context of disabled performers falls to the audience, who view challenging and unflinching routines. Staged entirely within a bare-bones sound stage furnished only with a curtain, The Laughable draws immediate attention to its disabled performers not by exemplifying their physical differences, but by hosting its participants within a liminal and unsettling environment. The room itself seems expansive in its blankness, yet restrictive. This makes for a uniquely purgatorial setting for The Laughable’s radical performances.
The comedy routines themselves are, without a doubt, also demanding. Heavy topics, including religious attitudes to the LGBTQ+ community and transphobia, are discussed. One performance, delivered via speech-enabling software, avails of and reclaims ableist slurs in a punchline. This blend of conventional comedy and anarchist deconstruction of performance and body is effective in promoting an internal conversation about the ethics of laughter.
Fascinatingly, audience responses in the films ranged from belly laughter to complete silence, depending on the context and delivery of each gag. Quiet, self-censored sniggers were also uttered by myself and other attendees at the screening. This highlights the success of Browne’s experiment and its boldness. Admittedly, I unconsciously judged fellow audience members for laughing at some of the content. They probably judged me too, as did the film’s director, who was in the room with us for the uncomfortably intimate atmosphere.
Despite the film’s overstated attempts at sparking conversation, which included close-ups of banana peels and extradiegetic boos and cheers, the film remained compelling. Ultimately, Browne’s mission statement on laughter was charmingly realised and permeated the entire piece with a haunting, hilarious reverence.
aemi & Docs Ireland 2025: Acting Woman / BAN♥️ITS / The Laughable screening took place on 29th June 2025 in Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast.
