Director: Leah Meyerhoff
Country: USA
Format: 16mm
Running Time: 4:00
Synopsis: Lunchtime was never quite like this.
A neurotic female confronts a predatory male in an unusual way. Refusing to be objectified, she uses her sexuality as a weapon. Yet is being a spectacle any better than being a victim?

Leah Meyerhoff is a native Californian for whom filmmaking is a second career. She graduated with Honors from Brown University, with a Bachelor's degree in Art-Semiotics. She was immediately accepted into NYU's Tisch School of the Arts where she completed her first year of the Master's Film Program. Leah has several films to her credit, including "Neurotica," "Wonderfluff Sandwiches," and "Waxing Nostalgic." In addition, she was the editor of "Curio," a short film directed by NYU professor Adrienne Weiss, which premiered at the 2000 Newport Film Festival. Leah was also the sole recipient of the 2001 Ann Belsky Morris Award for outstanding achievement in the field of visual arts. In addition to directing, Leah has a strong background in cinematography, editing, art direction, and sound design. Currently, she is studying at the Art Institute of Chicago in the graduate film department, where she is taking a break from traditional filmmaking to pursue more experimental video installation work.

Like many women, I was raped at a young age. For a long time afterwards, I was ashamed of my body. I thought of myself as a victim, always objectified and never in control. Yet as I grew older, I began to reverse this power dynamic and use my sexuality to my own advantage. By actively performing my sexuality in certain ways, I was able to regain control of my body and achieve a level of power. My body became a tool for controlling men rather than a site of victimization.
Yet recently, I have realized that this power-position of being a spectacle is no better than my previous position as victim. Both require female subjectivity to be defined in terms of objectification. Thus they are only illusions of power, replicating the traditional gender hierarchy rather than subverting it.
My films explore such issues of power and spectacle, and their relationship to female sexuality. If we construct our gender roles largely through our performance of them, what does it mean for female performance to be of a sexual nature? For example, when a woman works as a stripper is she degraded or empowered? How is the power of being a spectacle different from the power of being a victim? What other subject positions are available to women and how might they be represented?
By pointing to society's role in constructing gender identity while offering up new alternatives, I hope to shift gender politics in a positive direction.