The Carnival is Over

2018

9min

Artist Shirin Neshat explains the film: "I was interested in how female singers are universally treated as objects of desire. At first, Cate looks gorgeous, but when she sings it's a [masculine] voice. The audience heckles her, and she becomes confrontational. When the music comes back on, she does a seductive dance but her face is evil. For her final act of subversion, she takes off her hair and makeup and walks away. That part was Cate's idea. Fuck the beauty."