Delphine et Carole, insoumuses
Director: Callisto McNulty
Writer: Callisto McNulty, Alexandra Roussopoulos, Géronimo Roussopoulos
Part of: Viennale
Seen on: 25.10.2019

“Plot”:
Activist Carole Roussopoulos and actress Delphine Seyrig worked together in the 70s and 80s as the collective Les insoumuses, together with translator Ioana Wieder. They shot several videos on feminist issues, most notably SCUM Manifesto. The documentary brings together their activism and filmmaking with archive footage of themselves and their work.

Delphine et Carole, insoumuses is a very nice documentary that underscores how much we are still/again fighting the same fights, even 50 years later.

I was not aware about Seyrig and Roussopoulos and their work before watching the film, so it was really nice to get this insight in what they were up to. The film gives us a good overview with excerpts from (their) films, as well as interview material.

And as I said, it is always astonishing how little has changed in feminist criticism and demands in the last decades. I mean, there have been changes and some of the things here don’t hold up so well anymore. I’m not saying that there has been no development whatsoever. But the core is still the same – and still far from being actually achieved.

It’s not the first time that I have had this experience watching historical feminist footage, but it is a good reminder. A reminder that we’re not re-inventing the wheel with feminist activism today, we can look back on a long history and learn from it. A reminder that things don’t change on their own. A reminder to stay angry at the state of things.

In short, I really enjoyed the film that gave me some perspective and historical context, even though there maybe wasn’t that much new information for me here. But it doesn’t have to be new to be informative anyway – and that it certainly was.

Summarizing: a good watch.