Cathy Cook

This unconventional comedy explores women’s sexuality through candid stories of sexual discoveries, fantasies and pleasures. Visually stunning, yet unnerving, the film is a visual montage of found industrial films and original footage of swirling skirts, monumental machinery, ocean life, and befuddled reaction shots. The phone rings and the girl-talk begins: secrets emerge and confessions build as the audience is taken on an adventure of sensual humor.

This tickling thriller about an afternoon tea features Holly Brown, who spontaneously transforms into several female personas that startle and entertain her surprised guest. Brown’s character’s are obsessed with formalities of etiquette, pedigree and hospitality while spoofing sex roles and stereotypes.

Beyond Voluntary Control conveys the experience of psychological and physical confinement. Through a surreal montage of haunting images from diverse sources, a sense of the obsessions, phobias, and diseases that constrict personal freedom is tellingly communicated. Dancer David Figueroa contributes his original and evocative movements to the mix. A soundtrack with poems by Emily Dickinson and Sharon Olds escorts the visual, and an interview with the filmmaker’s mother poignantly underscores the latter’s struggle with Parkinson’s disease.

A comical outlook on who TRULY makes the world go around.