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ALMA

Name: ALMA
Director: Klea McKenna
Released: 2017
Duration: 9 min

Representation Score

6.3/10

Good

2017

Director

Klea McKenna

Runtime

9 minutes

Average Rating

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New Showbiz Analysis

ALMA is a sensory, non-narrative exploration of the female experience. By centering the repetitive rhythms of motherhood and labor, the film transforms domesticity into a transcendent, collective ritual. This approach successfully disrupts traditional cinematic hierarchies that often sideline maternal work. The film excels at challenging gendered expectations, presenting the female body as a site of profound ability to act. While the cast suggests racial diversity, the film's focus on primordial landscapes and communal movement keeps specific ethnic identities somewhat abstracted. Ultimately, the work functions as a meditative critique of capitalist productivity. It replaces standard Western storytelling formulas with a focus on breath, landscape, and the spiritual significance of physical presence.

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Category Breakdown

Does ALMA have LGBTQ+ representation?

Fair

The film avoids traditional romantic pairings and instead focuses on communal connections that allow for flexible interpretations of identity.

How does ALMA portray gender?

Excellent

The film centers on the female experience and the physicality of motherhood. It elevates domestic labor from mere servitude to a position of spiritual importance.

How racially and ethnically diverse is ALMA?

Fair

A diverse ensemble of women performs a shared ritual within a megalithic landscape. However, the specific interplay of ethnic identities remains visually unconfirmed.

How does ALMA represent religion and culture?

Good

The work prioritizes meditative ritual and communion with nature over organized religion. It reframes labor as a rhythmic connection to the earth rather than economic output.

Does ALMA include disability representation?

Minimal

The film does not explicitly depict specific disabilities. It focuses instead on the universal sensory engagement and the physicality of the human body.

Present on Screen

Challenges traditional gender hierarchies by framing maternal labor as a source of spiritual power.
Avoids traditional storytelling formulas in favor of communal connections.
Transforms domestic labor into a transcendent ritual.

Limited or Absent

Lacks explicit visual confirmation regarding the specific interplay of racial and ethnic identities.
Does not provide specific representation or depictions of disability.

Official Synopsis

A non-narrative short film tracking the movement of a flock of women through a megalithic landscape. They appear to be working, enacting a cryptic ceremony with a sense of calm & purposeful labor. A score weaving together their breath & hums with sounds collected from the landscape: wind, Rattlesnake grass & their hands rubbing against stone. The women's gestures come from both work & dance – evoking the strange overlap between labor & ritual. This film began as a response to the physicality of daily life as a mother & the rhythm of these acts; the relentless repetition of parenting, working, tending the world with our bodies. This repetition can easily become vacant labor, but it can also transform into a kind of meditative, even transcendent ritual, a collective communion with the landscape & each other. ALMA offers itself as a companion piece to McKenna’s photographic rubbings, a glimpse into the same world from where her art arises.

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