The Gloria of your Imagination
In 1964, a 30-year-old divorced woman named Gloria was filmed consulting with three eminent therapists. Filmmaker Jennifer Reeves uses this footage to explore single parenthood, gendered power relationships, and Gloria’s remarkable story.
Director Jennifer Reeves and co-producer Randy Sterns scheduled to attend.
Attend the May 20 screening to meet filmmaker Caryn Cline, get a free zine from Interbay Cinema Society, and learn about the upcoming Engauge Experimental Film Festival.
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In 1964, a 30-year-old divorced woman named Gloria was filmed consulting with three eminent therapists. She was told it was for a training film and would only be shown in academic settings. Her responses to each of them are unguarded and incredibly honest, expressing worries about being a good parent while still wanting to have sex, even with men she knows she won’t marry. In many ways, she is a progressive and modern woman who would not be out of place in 2025. Director Jennifer Reeves contextualizes the therapy sessions by mixing in biographical information about Gloria, along with representations of women at the time from industrial films, commercials, and home movies. As an audience, we sit in judgement of the three different styles of therapy for how we think it's reacting to and helping her. After the sessions are sold to PBS without her consent, she realizes her admissions and vulnerabilities are now out and available to people she knows, and we start to question our own privileged position as a viewer. Through it all, her honesty and dignity shine through. Of all the documentaries I watched this year, this one has stuck with me the longest.
- Director: Jennifer Reeves
- Principal Cast: Frederick Perls, Carl Rogers, Albert Ellis, Everett Shostrom, "Gloria"
- Country: USA
- Year: 2024
- Running Time: 98 min.
- Producer: Jennifer Reeves, Randy Sterns
- Screenplay: Jennifer Reeves
- Editors: Jennifer Reeves
- Music: Elliott Sharp
- Website: Official Film Website
- Filmography: When It Was Blue (2008), The Time We Killed (2004)
- Language: English
- Format: DCP