Types of Visibility: Disruption, Consent & Contemporary Politics

Abstract

This paper analyses representations of the coming-of-age process in contemporary narrative films that challenge dominant social and political ideologies. Through an intersectional analysis of Tomboy (2011), Girlhood (2014), and Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), all of which were directed by Céline Sciamma; Inxeba (2017) by John Trengove, and Moffie (2019) by Oliver Hermanus, I demonstrate how specific scenes and sequences expose and critique gender, race, class, and sexuality norms. Drawing from feminist, queer, and postcolonial theories, I identify three types of visibility across the films: disruption, consent, and contemporary politics. The analysis reveals how the selected films contest dominant cinematic gazes and scopic regimes by giving visibility to diverse identities and experiences. I argue that this study yields generative insight into the complexities of the coming-of-age process on the body as it is represented in contemporary narrative film.