Films to See at TIFF: WORKING WOMAN

WORKING WOMAN, A Film by Michal Aviad

Hardworking, talented and ambitious, Orna faces increasing sexual harassment at work, which soon affects her entire life.

WORKING WOMAN is about the ways in which the powerful at work can exploit and abuse their subordinates and endanger their livelihood. Most work relations steeped with sexuality are between a male employer and a woman employee. More often than not, it is the woman who pays the economic, reputational, social, psychological and familial price. Many clichés which blame women permeate our culture. Often, both women and men believe in them. I tried in the film to understand the harsh consequences of sexual harassment on the victim and her entire context: her relationships with her husband and her children, and her ability to find work. At the same time I wanted to understand the blindness of the abuser and the social environment.

In WORKING WOMAN, Director, Michal Aviad wanted to explore how the relationship between employer and subordinate, when infused with sexual elements, is complex and difficult to separate from successful and prolific work relations.

Aviad started working on WORKING WOMAN in 2012. Like other women around me, I heard stories of sexual harassment on a daily basis, especially in the work place. I was fascinated by the process of change I was witnessing. From the generation before me in which society was blind to the phenomena, to my generation and the younger generations who seek a deep change in the ways women and men relate sexually to each other.

Festival Screenings:

Friday Sept. 7, 11:30am, Scotiabank 9 (P&I Screening)

Tuesday, Sept. 11, 6:15pm, Scotiabank 2 (International Premiere, Public 1)

Thursday, Sept. 13, 9:30am, TIFF Bell Lightbox 1 (Public 2)

Saturday, Sept. 16, 9:15am, Scotiabank 1 (Public 3)