OLD ENOUGH TO BLEED

The title of this piece comes from the northern English expression "Old enough to bleed, old enough to butcher". Inferring a girl can be of use sexually as soon as she menstruates for the first time. Actually it is not one film but four short films exploring aspects of womanhood and the female rites of passage.

The other theme that bonds each of the films together is the colour red: In Virgin she is Red Riding Hood, Dorothy with the magical red shoes, she has a basket of cherries and indeed is about to loose her cherry; in Whore she wears tarty red clothes and is butchered and bloody; in Wife she has drugged red wine and the splattered blood of her victim; and lastly in Goddess the celebrated five wounds and the physical and symbolic blood of Christ.

If you watch these films with the idea that there is a beginning middle and end you will be disappointed. Each film is a series of images, metaphors and ideas. Some may make sense to you and have meaning others may not.

Virgin

Little Red Riding Hood entering the forest is of course a well-known metaphor for a girl's emerging sexuality. Our little girl is well aware of her allure and the power she has over the beast that is male sexuality.

Film stills