The Dilemma of Desire Kickstarter is now live!
The Dilemma of Desire, the newest film from Peabody Award-winning director Maria Finitzo (Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita) and 4-time Academy Award nominated production house Kartemquin Films, launched its Kickstarter campaign today. The filmmakers are seeking $40,000 in funds to go towards the final edit of the documentary, due for release in 2020. The film explores the clash between the power of gender politics and the equally powerful imperatives of female sexual desire. Its Kickstarter launch date of March 22 is the anniversary of the Equal Rights Amendment passing the US Senate in 1972.
The amendment still has yet to be ratified to the US constitution – 49 years later – meaning the US constitution still doesn’t guarantee equal legal rights to citizens regardless of sex. But Finitzo believes true gender equality cannot be achieved on Capitol Hill alone.
“The Dilemma of Desire is the next conversation after #MeToo and #TimesUp. The film will push and pull on long held outdated beliefs about female desire to present the truth about what women really want. True equality will come only when society arrives at a place of understanding and acknowledgement that all women are sexual beings, entitled to live their lives fully within the expression of their desire. There can be no equality without the equality of pleasure.”
– Director Maria Finitzo
The Dilemma of Desire follows a conceptual artist, two scientists, and an industrial designer who are using their work to shatter the myths and outright lies women have been taught about their sexual desire and their bodies. Committed to the truth - call it “Cliteracy”- the acknowledgement and understanding that the clitoris is fundamental to the female orgasm - these four compelling women are out to change culture.
Finitzo and producers Diane Quon (Minding the Gap) and Cynthia Kane (former television and funding executive for Sundance Channel, ITVS, and Al Jazeera America) have assembled a powerhouse group of female collaborators, and today announce new additions Barbara Kopple (Harlan County, USA; American Dream) as executive producer, Ro*Co Films as Global Sales Agents, and a board of advisors that includes The Vagina Monologues creator Eve Ensler, legendary feminist psychologist Carol Gilligan (In a Different Voice), and Cynthia Lopez, Executive Director of New York Women in Film and Television. With this film, they intend to address gender inequality in one of the most personal spheres of a woman’s life: sexual desire and pleasure.
“Many of my films, both documentary and fiction, (5 Girls, In the Game, A Taste of Life) have explored the lives of women and girls revealing the barriers they face in the quest for personal autonomy. I am interested in telling stories that have at their core a driving desire for liberation – sexual, economic and psychological – from the cultural domination of men. The Dilemma of Desire is a natural evolution of my work.”
– Director Maria Finitzo
“I have three daughters. I want it to be better for them than it was for me and unfortunately, there are times when I watch the news and it feels like we are going backwards. I was intrigued by how this story would be told: five young women share their intimate lives - the challenges and joys of being sexual in today’s world. Four professionals also share how their work in science and art are breaking myths about what women want - or don’t want. Together, their stories create an emotional film that will make you both laugh and cry. Most importantly, it will spur rousing conversation among both men and women. Until we can talk about female desire and equality of pleasure without embarrassment, change and equality on all fronts won’t happen.”
– Producer Diane Quon
“I believe in this film – if women’s libidos were taken as seriously as men’s, the world would look, feel, and operate much differently. Having agency over the most basic element of our lives – our bodies – would determine a path to real equality.”
– Producer Cynthia Kane
Perks of donating to the film’s Kickstarter include the VESPER vibrator, designed by film participant Ti Chang; jewelry and apparel emblazoned with messages such as ‘Smash the Patriarchy’ and ‘Pleasure for All’; and original artwork by women artists featured in the film.The campaign runs until April 22.
Donate here.