Jennifer Montgomery : Questioning Human Nature

After having Jennifer Montgomery visit UW Milwaukee to attend a showing of a few of her experimental films, much of our class found themselves bewildered by what they were shown.

Jennifer Montgomery is an artist that likes to use collaging techniques to create and edit experimental films. One of her films, "Age 12: Love with a Little L," caught the attention of most of the audience and became the epicenter of our discussions about her work. In this film, we see many different pieces of her life put together in such an order that helps describe and define her sexuality. Some of the scenes in this film, the students found a little disturbing, but strangely at the same time found them liberating. These scenes included shots of Jennifer's relationship with her girlfriend imitating the animal-like nature of humans to claim territory or preserve domination over one another. In these scenes, we witness acts like Jennifer urinating on her girlfriend (marking territory), pretending to train her girlfriend as if she were a dog, telling her to sit, speak, and wag her tail (domination). While this seems lewd at first, I was surprised to see that other's saw the deeper meanings behind it just as I had. Although it seems somewhat disturbing, the meanings about domination and territorial pissing definitely shined through. It leaves the viewer questioning, "Why did Jennifer find it necessary to include scenes like this? What point is she trying to make? Was it to defend her own guilty pleasures? And would this film be perceived differently if it were created by a man?"

One of the most intriguing scenes was when film strips of a woman painting with her own menstrual blood was spliced with film shots of a group of girls eating pomegranate. The reason that this scene was so interesting was because of the similarities between the two subjects. When the woman was painting with her own blood, it seems uncomfortable yet liberating at the same time. Then we are shown scenes of girls eating pomegranate, with the juices dripping down their chins and hands, it becomes strangely erotic. Obviously, the visual similarities of the juice versus the blood becomes apparent, and the audience begins to make connections between these two entirely different subjects. This helps the viewer to understand that this film is not just about having sexually explicit scenes, but more trying to connect a woman's sexuality to something that has a deeper meaning. As some believe that pomegranate is the fruit that Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, the pomegranate becomes an icon for what Jennifer Montgomery is trying to express.

What can be learned from this?

In our discussions after viewing this film, we all questioned whether or not we consider this film of a pornographic nature or whether it is simply artistic. Many aspects of the film lead us to believe that it is more of an artistic endeavor that seeks to exploit human traits that appear to be of an animal nature.