The Marrying Kind EXPLORING GENDER AND TRADITION IN I AM NO BIRD
The feature-length debut of director Em Baker, I Am No Bird (2019) is an observational documentary about what weddings mean to modern women. Taking its title from a passage in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre – ‘Jane, be still; don’t struggle so, like a wild, frantic bird that is rending its own plumage in its desperation,’ the protagonist’s would-be husband Edward Rochester chastises her, to which Jane retorts: ‘I am no bird; no net ensnares me; I am a free human being, with an independent will’1 – the film documents four women from four very different backgrounds as they navigate the matrimonial process in their respective communities.
At first glance, it may seem odd to reference a quote of this calibre in a film about marriage. Its relevance lies in the fact that Brontë’s and Baker’s respective heroines are navigating institutions that were not designed to benefit them. Their paths to self-determination will take different routes – through differing cultures, socio-economic situations, faiths and sexualities – but their agency in choosing their paths is their common denominator. In presenting protagonists from such a broad range of milieus, Baker invites audiences to learn from their diverse wisdom and experience.
