Abstract Book of the 7th International Conference on Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts
Year: 2025
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The Creative Practice and Social Significance of the Feature Fim “Pillar Mothers”
Feng Nana, Tee Xiao Xi, Nur Farazilla Mohd Arsad
ABSTRACT:
This analysis investigates the creative practice and social significance of the feature film “Pillar Mothers,” focusing on women who become the primary spiritual and economic support of their families due to circumstances such as divorce, widowhood, or a spouse’s inability to work. Drawing on feminist film theory, film semiotics, and feminist rheory, the research explores how visual and auditory elements can authentically portray the resilience and struggles of these women, using case studies of three representative works: “Small Body, Great Strength”, “The Entrepreneurial Path of the Pillar Mother”, and “A Path to Hope”. The three films, developed over the span of five years, employed framing, coloring practices, and narrative devices to represent struggle, strength, and hope by shifting the back view into a representation of burden and smile into a representation of hope. The analysis indicates that pillar mothers represented capability and resilience, and the films served as a strong medium to create awareness of this social group, counter gender stereotypes, and induce social support activity to specifically support pillar mothers as a group. By documenting lived experience, these films have the potential to develop the general public’s understanding of the challenges pillar mothers face in their lives, as well as create a context for discussion about gender parity and social support systems in the world.
Keywords: capability, documentary, gender, pillar mothers, resilience