Two Short Films by Elisabeth Subrin

What does it mean to be a woman artist asserting her agency in a capitalist, male-dominated film industry? Inspired by a haunting interview given by actor Maria Schneider, in which she alluded to the trauma of filming Bernardo Bertolucci’s LAST TANGO IN PARIS opposite Marlon Brando, Elisabeth Subrin’s arresting recreation MARIA SCHNEIDER, 1983 casts three captivating actors—Manal Issa, Aïssa Maïga, and Isabel Sandoval—as versions of Schneider, giving them space to blend Schneider’s responses with their own unique perspectives on race and gender. In Subrin’s companion short MANAL ISSA, 2024, the French Lebanese Issa once again answers the same questions, this time fully in her own words as an Arab artist rethinking her priorities amid escalating Israeli air strikes on Lebanon.