Depardon and Marie Perennès and the women collage activists’ movement 

POSTED ON 19.10.2022

In ‘Feminist Riposte’, Simon Depardon and Marie Perennès meet with feminist organisations across France to interview activists and film their daily struggle to reclaim public space through collages. This invaluable documentary provides the keys to a movement driven by an unwavering determination.

What made you want to direct this film?

Marie Perennès: It came from a personal feminist commitment on my part and on the part of our producer, Claudine Nougaret. But also from an immense curiosity to get to know a little better this movement which fascinated us by its momentum. We live in Paris and every day we see collages everywhere. We had a burning need to know who was behind them. The story really began like in the film: I noticed a collage downstairs and photographed it before posting it on social networks. The Paris collective immediately contacted me and asked me to come and paste with them. I went there as an activist and I entered this absolutely fascinating world where there is a very strong determination, an anger and a thirst for justice. It was at this point that Simon and I came up with the idea of keeping an account of their movements and their words, which were horribly ridiculed and scorned in the media. They are the face of this movement and we wanted to capture a record of it. We thought of this film as a small stone in the edifice.

They talk openly about what drives their struggle. How did you work with them?

Marie Perennès: It was me who contacted them. It was easier, even if Simon was quickly accepted each time we met a group. It all started with the contacts I had in the Parisian community. Since they are extremely connected on social networks, everything came together through messaging platforms. Then we had very long scouting sessions during which we discussed a lot and detailed what we wanted to do. As we went along, a sort of moral contract was created between us and them. If they didn't feel comfortable, they had the possibility of stopping the shooting and resuming it later. They had confidence in us because they knew what we would do with their words. We also made sure that we were a very small team and that all four members were accepted. We kept to ourselves and tried to take up as little space as possible. The whole goal was to find the right balance that allowed them to express themselves.

Simon Depardon: In total, we met about fifteen groups. We didn't just want to shoot in Paris, but also to see other groups in France. What is quite particular and fascinating about the feminist movement today is that it is very interconnected thanks to social networks. We were on location for eight months to get to know them, to understand them and to establish a form of trust that would then allow us to set up our apparatus with the aim of capturing their voices.

What was the most surprising and striking thing you discovered about their battle that you didn't expect?

Simon Depardon: We were quite amazed at how politicized and outspoken these activists were at a very young age. They told us how their own involvement began during the lockdown or, unfortunately, after an attack. We were amazed by the personalities that emerged in front of us, each in their own way and with their own local particularity. Some ride their bikes, others stand in front of everyone. We wanted to capture the moment we spent with each group, without their eyes crossing the camera, so that the viewer could get an idea of their approach to activism. One of the most recurrent points in their testimonies is the violence of the fight. The question is divisive... Simon Depardon: This question came up quite early and inspired the title of the film. "Feminist riposte" is one of the slogans they chant very frequently: "sexist violence, feminist riposte". They are responding to a violent act. We found the use of words interesting because it allowed us to go as far as this debate, which is philosophical, and which is not settled within the social rights movements in general. The environmental movement also asks itself the question of civil disobedience. By focusing on the atrocious violence of feminicide, we wanted to guide the audience towards an emotion that would lead to the statement: this must stop.

Simon Depardon and Marie Perennès © Photo Benoit Pavan

What the documentary emphasizes also is the hardship of the struggle and the energy invested, even though many people have been liberated by it.

Marie Perennès: We very quickly felt that the collages were only a tool in the struggle. And that, in the end, this struggle is much broader. The collage is a form of protest, but their feminist determination and their desire for the world to change goes far beyond that. They have the ultimate conviction that if society were less patriarchal, it would solve a lot of social problems. This mixture of anger, determination and hope left a mark on us.

Simon Depardon: Many feminist issues emerged from the film. But what we first tried to do was to explain that through these collages, these activists want to take back the public space. They have this feeling that it doesn't belong to them and that it's very difficult to go out in the street. There's this journey in the film: the body, the space, and the systemic problem of feminicide that encompasses everything and is both the most important struggle and the origin of the collage movement. But this sense of space in the street is very important.

Why did you decide to shoot almost exclusively still shots?

Simon Depardon: We worked a lot on the idea that the film should render this notion of space in the collage sessions and therefore we had to favour the tripod to show the installation of the collective in the street. The choice of a hand-held camera would have added a form of urgency, which is often the case when filming collage artists in broadcasts. There was this idea of installing the tripod with them to show this reappropriation. We also had to make sure that we weren't just talking endlessly. We had to give the frame a presence and that's what we did with the images of the demonstrations. The street: that's also where their struggle takes place.

Marie Perennès: There were two main ideas. First, to establish their presence in the street, their activism and their right to fight to exist there. The collages are a physical commitment of the body. It is tiring and stressful. But they also are in line with the ethos of Palmeraie du Désert, our production company, which believes that all documentary characters have the right to the best possible cinematograph material. As much as any Hollywood actor. We thought about this a lot during the shooting..

Interview by Benoit Pavan

Screening:

Feminist Riposte by Simon Depardon and Marie Perennès (Riposte féministe, 2022, 1h27, VFSTA)

Lumière Terreaux Wed. 19 5:30pm