Melanie Toutakova is an Edinburgh-based French-Russian feminist director, writer and content creator.
She has started the blog Feminist Film Gaze to examine and critique today's film culture through a modern feminist lens. She aims to empower women, represent the female perspective and the diversity of society as she sees it around her.
She is currently working on her feminist immersive short film ‘(You Went To) Inverleith Park’ with the support of Young Scot through the Nurturing Talent Fund. It follows Allegra meeting her childhood friend Dan for the first time after lockdown. The short film is entirely from Allegra’s perspective and follows her feelings and thoughts as she struggles with what she wants to do and what is expected of her.
Melanie wants to tell authentic stories that represent the point of view of women and show what being a woman today looks like. She has done research around the female gaze and the representation of female desire on screen and strives to free her practice from the male gaze. Her female characters are active women taking their lives into their owns hands and freeing themselves from society’s expectations.