LSFF: I am Dora presents "Is it peculiar that she twerk in the mirror?"

I am Dora presents 'Is it peculiar that she twerk in the mirror?'

A programme of recent music videos, followed by an extended panel discussion.

From Lily Allen's Hard out here to  Beyonce's Flawless, an intersectional debate about contemporary feminism(s) has reached the mainstream. Beyond the ongoing debate about representations of women's sexual agency in the male dominated music industry, where a woman's body has become a lucrative commodity, is a more complex debate about the line between the cross pollinating effects of a shared love of music and deeply problematic cultural appropriation.

Historically a battleground over the female body, the world of the music video is being reclaimed by a wave of artists who are using it as a medium to to defy categorisation and convention. Whether it is the most politest of subversions from Beyonce, the afro-futurist aesthetics of FKA Twigs and Janelle Monae, the blatant and inciting weaponising of the female body from Nicki Minaj or the confrontation on expectations of gender from Planningtorock and Gazelle Twin, we will ask is there is a new self-determination apparent in the way that artists are defying expectation by presenting themselves and their differences?

The panel:

Aimee Cliff
Aimee Cliff is a freelance music and culture journalist based in London. A regular contributor to Dazed and The Fader, her insightful pieces have directly addressed female identity politics in popular music, tackling issues such as intersectional feminism in music videos and the limitations of the mainstream music press in understanding new work by those who fall outside the conventions usually assigned to female or non-white artists.

Emma Dabiri
Emma Dabiri is a writer and commentator. She is a PhD Researcher in the Sociology Department at Goldsmiths. Her research explores the multiple ways in which mixedness has come to be gendered. She is a teaching fellow in the Africa Department at SOAS and her major passions include, African and African Diasporian performative and literary cultures, critical race studies, feminism and folklore.

Grace Ladoja
Grace Ladoja is photographer and filmmaker based in London. Working across culture and commerce, she has collaborated on a number of visual projects with artists such as FKA Twigs.

This event is curated by Jemma Desai (I am Dora) who will also lead the discussion. Jemma Desai is a curator and writer based in London. She is a programmer for the London Film Festival and the Independent Cinema Office and is the founder of I am Dora.

I am Dora is a curatorial initiative that explores how women relate to one another through the medium of film.