Perfecly Equal
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Treatment found footage project 2019
Wdka / Stadsarchief Rotterdam
Title:
Perfectly Equals
Logline:
Suze Groeneweg: a woman in a men’s world who stood for equality.
Synopsis:
Perfectly equals is a film about Suze Groeneweg’s life and ideology presented as a fragmented radio interview that leads the viewer into the story from the perspective of one of her former colleagues from the SDAP. The story unfolds as a collage of “bizarre” and interesting anecdotes: the fact that she was elected in the peculiar circumstances where women couldn’t vote yet, meaning that she was elected by men. Her appearance in the house of representatives initiated changes: the Queen changing her speech from “Dear men of the parliament” to “dear members of the parliament”, and that a women toilet had to be added for the first time in the “Staten-Generaal”. Her “paradoxical” voting against her own woman’s club which wanted to become a party of its own in the House of Representatives. The fact that she felt responsible for her position within the history of women in politics and that she eventually gained the respect she deserved within the parliament either by her party and opposites. All of these stories have in common the main focus on equality. This bigger picture should shows why Suze Groeneweg is a good example of how equal rights should be fought for: she did not prioritise any gender over the other.
Genre:
Documentary Collage/ Film essay
Target Audience:
Young adults interested in human rights and gender equality / Extremists
Theme
Equality which is shown by the life of Suze Groeneweg (she is the medium used to talk about equality)
Key words:
- Human rights
- Equality
- Suze Groeneweg
- Collage
- strong female figure - Duality (male/female)
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Characters
Suze Groeneweg: The first Woman in the Tweede Kamer, (House of Representatives). Teacher in Rotterdam, active in the field of education and gender equality. Pacifist and member of SDAP, she was the first woman in the Nederland to be elected in the parliament (in 1918) by an only-men electorate. Respected by her male colleagues of SDAP as well as opposites parties for her hard work and rhetorical skills. Never got married not to loose her ability to act on her own without the consent of the husband. Suze Groeneweg was considered to be too moderate by other feminists because she wanted women to be included in all the already existing organisation and activities that were previously for only men rather than create new ones for women (like an only-women party). Impetuous and short-tempered, wasn’t afraid of saying her own opinion bluntly and to argue with her male colleagues. We don’t see her in the movie itself (probably) we only know her through the voice and stories of Dr W Drees, former colleague in the House of Representatives of Suze.
Dr. W. Drees: The former Prime Minister of the Netherlands (1948/1958) and former member of the House of Representatives from 1933 to 1945. He was a member of the same party as Suze Groeneweg (SDAP) and her colleague for 4 years when she also was in the House of Representatives. He is our narrator: he speaks friendly about Suze Groeneweg and has a personal insight of her political persona and ideology.(...)
Message
We want to show, through Suze’s life and work, how equality can be reached and should be fought for: Sometimes (oppressed) minorities tend to isolate themselves and create a sense of narcissistic “pride” rather than try to be truly included into the “social fabric”.
