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Because Goddess is Never EnoughA 10-minute poetry film inspired by the life of Tilly Losch
2022. Digital video, 1000s of photographs by Jane Glennie & Rosie Garland “Mesmerising and thought provoking” Rosalind Davis, curator, artist & author of What They Didn’t Teach You In Art School |
Who was Tilly Losch? Dancer, artist, choreographer, lover, wife, muse … Tilly seems a blur, glimpsed at the corner of the eye, dancing in and out of focus.
‘Because Goddess is never enough’ is a new and dynamic collaboration from award-winning artists: filmmaker Jane Glennie and writer/performer Rosie Garland. They ask questions about biographies of women (and their complex lives!) who fall into the footnotes, lost from history as so many women’s stories are, seen only through a patriarchal lens, illuminating and reclaiming women’s stories.
Tilly Losch was an Austrian dancer who worked with prominent, and cutting-edge, choreographers and artists in the UK and the US, from the West End to Hollywood. She was also a choreographer in her own right, who later turned to painting. Through moving images and poetry Glennie and Garland investigate the elusive and fragmentary nature of Tilly’s life, evoking the spirit of the 1920s–40s when she was at the peak of her fame.
The film is about self-worth, the authentic self, and the credibility of creative women – Losch was someone who was at times exploited yet determined to maintain a path of her own making despite the obstacles that were very much present in her era. The parallels of Losch and the way women are still portrayed in the in the 21st century through the lens of the media and by society forms a powerful and thought-provoking statement about female identity.
In a visually rich, painterly, and dreamlike film made from thousands of original images collaged together, these layered images consider the complexity of female identity both then and now: highlighting how far women have come in 90 years, and yet how far they still have to go to get recognition and true independence.
‘Because Goddess is never enough’ is a new and dynamic collaboration from award-winning artists: filmmaker Jane Glennie and writer/performer Rosie Garland. They ask questions about biographies of women (and their complex lives!) who fall into the footnotes, lost from history as so many women’s stories are, seen only through a patriarchal lens, illuminating and reclaiming women’s stories.
Tilly Losch was an Austrian dancer who worked with prominent, and cutting-edge, choreographers and artists in the UK and the US, from the West End to Hollywood. She was also a choreographer in her own right, who later turned to painting. Through moving images and poetry Glennie and Garland investigate the elusive and fragmentary nature of Tilly’s life, evoking the spirit of the 1920s–40s when she was at the peak of her fame.
The film is about self-worth, the authentic self, and the credibility of creative women – Losch was someone who was at times exploited yet determined to maintain a path of her own making despite the obstacles that were very much present in her era. The parallels of Losch and the way women are still portrayed in the in the 21st century through the lens of the media and by society forms a powerful and thought-provoking statement about female identity.
In a visually rich, painterly, and dreamlike film made from thousands of original images collaged together, these layered images consider the complexity of female identity both then and now: highlighting how far women have come in 90 years, and yet how far they still have to go to get recognition and true independence.
“Beautifully constructed, sparkly and gently provoking”
Jo Thomas, artist & researcher
Jo Thomas, artist & researcher
Rosie Garland is a writer of poetry, short and long fiction, and essays. Her latest poetry collection ‘What Girls Do in the Dark’ was selected as a Poetry Society Best Book of 2021, Northern Soul’s Best Reads of 2021, and has been shortlisted for the Polari Prize 2021. With a passion for language nurtured by libraries, she started out in spoken word, garnering praise from Apples and Snakes as ‘one of the country’s finest performance poets’.
The film also features professional dancer Natasha Jervis and voice actor Alison Glennie.
The film also features professional dancer Natasha Jervis and voice actor Alison Glennie.
If you are interested in this film - please do email me. It is available for preview for curators and festivals.