Feminism WTF
Director: Katharina Mückstein
Writer: Ina Freudenschuss, Katharina Mückstein
Seen on: 19.4.2023

“Plot”:
Feminism WTF tries to capture the current feminist discourse, the topics and problems that (still) hold the attention of feminists, as well as the certainties and achievements that feminism has gained in the many decades of activisim and science.

Feminism WTF is an excellent introduction to feminist theory for both people who are familiar with it and those who might be interested but a little overwhelmed by the sheer amount of it (I’d consider myself part of the former group). It’s a joyful and creative documentary that doesn’t coddle the audience but is accessible throughout.

I had rather high expectations of the documentary because I had heard good things about it beforehand. Even if I hadn’t, though, it would have been a must-see for me. I am, after all, a sociologist specialized in feminism and film. As such, I was looking forward to what the film had to offer – and despite my high expectations, I was still very pleasantly surprised about what the film delivered.

For one, Mückstein and Freudenschuss manage to cover an amazing amount of ground in queer and intersectional feminism, going from biology to sociology to economy, from child-rearing to personal privilege, from racism and colonialism to domestic violence and lack of male involvement in feminism. It is a really broad spectrum of topics – and thanks to the excellent (and wonderfully diverse) roster of experts they found to interview, these topics are presented with a lot of depth and clarity.

That alone would have been enough to make me love the film, but there is more: interspersed between the interviews are dance scenes, playful experiments and even something like living paintings that give us the possibility to self-reflect, to make the theory more practical and to connect emotionally with the impact of feminism – because it is a highly personal experience to work for a feminist future. This is often what is overlooked in documentaries, and I just adored how the film brought this into play with apparent ease.

To round things off, they got really creative with the production design as well. The entire thing seems to be shot in an abandoned office building, where each room (and expert) gets a bright color. This underscores the notion that feminism is alive in a crumbling world. The film doesn’t sugarcoat things, isn’t inspiring just for the sake of it, but it is convinced and convincing in that feminism is the way forward.

Summarizing: should be seen by as many people as possible.