Director: Karen Sztajnberg

Starting at an artistic residency in Toronto Island, themed ‘’luminous bodies’’, the artist sets out to photograph male nudes. In an attempt to foreground the relationship between the smaller presence of female artists, and the abundance of female nudes in our everyday life, an all-female crew strives to photograph male bodies with strictly aesthetic preoccupations.
The project unveils the highly contrived process of image making, following the process from casting calls to the pre-production meeting, from interactions during the shoot to the critiques afterwards. It lifts the curtain on the deliberations made as we set out to address ageism, gender bias, directorial power dynamics and inscribe them into striking images.

This film is part of a combined programme with: Are you staring?. A very interesting pair of films allowing the viewer to watch and reflect about the male and female body.
The photographs made in The beholder of the eye will also be displayed at the festival venue.