Makin' It

Young women audition for a movie they know nothing about, and are tested and interrogated.

For this provocative film, director Simon Hartog invited nine women to undergo a screen test, ostensibly for the film we're watching. In each sequence the women are asked – and cajoled – to act out a variety of different scenarios and situations. A film about power and personal limits, plus an expose of the realities of commercial feature film production (note the Hitchcock screen test at the beginning), Makin It' makes for difficult, uncomfortable viewing.

Quite how to make sense of the politics and intent of this film is difficult, and some may find it problematic. Based in the present moment of each encounter, the interpersonal dynamics are complex. It features the television journalist Richard Dimbleby and was made by Simon Hartog, an experimental filmmaker who worked on the BBC documentary series Panorama. He left to pursue more experimental filmmaking and was a lifelong campaigner for independent film, co-founding the London Filmmakers' Co-op and later becoming a vocal contributor to the Independent Filmmakers’ Association.