Optically printed, hand processed and painted: the film process is manipulated to disrupt viewing expectations on a textual and aesthetic level. This repositions the subject and discourse of gender ambiguity available in the gaze. By shifting the discourse of the gaze, the film implicates viewers in the gazes operating between the filmmaker and her self-identified lesbian butch subjects.

Running Time: 7 Minutes
Format: 16mm, Color, Silent
Aspect Ratio: 1.33
Year: 2000, USA
Cast: Denise Conca, Susan Ford, Deirdre Logue, Karyn Sandlos, and Gretchen M. Till.

Selected Screenings:
2000 San Francisco Cinematheque
2000 Telluride International Experimental Film Festival
2000 Image-Movement, Taiwan Cinematheque
2000 Rencontres Internationals Paris/Berlin
2000 Art Institute of Chicago, Gene Siskel Film Center
2001 Aurora Picture Show
2001 1st International Film Festival of Sexuality and Gender Plurality Mumbai, India
2001 Directors Guild of America
2008 37th International Film Festival Rotterdam, NL


"Some of the most beautiful chemically treated images I've ever seen." Stan Brakhage, Postcard, April 2001. (Referencing Sans Titre, The Shape of the Gaze and Site Visit.)
"The entire piece is compelling and rich with the hand-processing and coloring and the emphatic looks of the dykes." Barbara Hammer, Letter, July 2000.
"Post-riot-grrl ethos informed a number of the best works...[including] Maïa Cybelle Carpenter's hand-processed vision of lesbians and machines The Shape of the Gaze..." Ed Halter, IndieWire, 04 Dec. 2000.
"In Maïa Cybelle Carpenter's drily witty The Shape of the Gaze butch women stare assertively at the camera, intercut with tools and machine parts." Fred Camper, Chicago Reader, Sept. 8, 2000.