Shovemiya Packiyanathan

Fractured Frames

Fractured Frames is a thesis project that investigates the portrayal of women’s suffering in neo-noir films from the 1970s to the 2000s. Centered around the question of how visual and narrative storytelling choices shape cultural understandings of gender and reinforce societal attitudes toward female suffering, this project dissects the recurring female archetypes that dominate the genre. Through an in-depth analysis of 40 neo-noir films, the project maps how archetypes—such as the Femme Fatale, Victim, Damsel, Survivor, and others—are visually constructed and narratively positioned within filmic worlds. The research is materialized into six interrelated design artifacts, each offering a unique lens into the aesthetics, character roles, and symbolic weight these archetypes carry. Together, these artifacts form an evolving archive that recontextualizes how suffering is stylized, romanticized, and normalized in cinematic storytelling.

“As a Tamil-Canadian designer and researcher, Fractured Frames began as a personal and critical inquiry into the recurring images of women I’ve encountered in film. Drawn to the haunting beauty and harsh truths within the neo-noir genre, I questioned why so many of these stories center on women’s pain—visually framed and narratively fixed in ways that are both seductive and tragic. Through watching 40 neo-noir films, I identified patterns in how archetypes are portrayed, manipulated, and consumed, and how these portrayals mirror broader cultural narratives around gender and empathy. My approach is grounded in design as a research method. Each of the six artifacts—ranging from an informational book to a video case study, character cards, zines, and a digital filing system—serves as a conceptual and visual deconstruction of these patterns. Fractured Frames does not aim to resolve the contradictions of these portrayals but rather to expose, question, and reframe them. It is an archive of archetypes and a critique of the lens through which we view women in genre storytelling.”