“No TV image is willing nor capable of expressing who we are. We will tell our story through video.”
From the end title card of Les Insoumuses’ Maso and Miso Go Boating (1976)

In the aftermath of May 1968, as an atmosphere of dissent permeated France, a strong feminist movement bravely emerged. In 1971, the historic “Manifesto of the 343,” signed by women who admitted to having abortions—a courageous act of civil disobedience since the procedure was then illegal—was published. Among the signatories was the name of famous French actress Delphine Seyrig. It was against this rousing political backdrop that Carole Roussopoulos first met Seyrig at one of the former’s video workshops. “Women were terrified by Delphine,” recalls Roussopoulos, citing the affecting aura of a star whose persona was seductive, otherworldly, and unnerving all at once. Frustrated with being the perennial object of desire on screen, Seyrig wanted to work with women filmmakers and create her own moving images. With the advent of portable video cameras, Seyrig and Roussopoulos, along with Ioana Wieder, founded the video collective Les Insoumuses, a play-on-words that roughly translates to “Disobedient Muses.” This mix of playfulness and defiance mirrors the radical joy of collective activism found in their works, which deal with myriad social issues. Their films not only criticize mainstream media and question the place of women in a capitalistic, sexist society, but also advocate for gay rights, sex workers’ rights and the legalization of abortions.

Not only are the subjects political, but the medium of video itself is subversive and radically emancipatory from other more traditional modes of filmmaking. Carole Roussopoulos was, in fact, the first woman in France to purchase the lightweight Sony Portapak camera. On a practical level, the portability of video cameras allow for a striking immediacy as the filmmakers are able to take their lens into the streets, to the protests, and interview participants on the spot. While instant playback and erasing functions foster greater trust from marginalized subjects such as sex workers, the ability to record over existing tapes is much more economical than securing film stocks. Theoretically, video visuals disturb and reinterpret the more conservative, reactionary images seen on mainstream television. Presented as collective efforts, the films also efface the masculine ideal of the auteur. Roussopoulos, who exclusively worked in this mode and was involved with more than 150 videos, rarely includes her name in the credits. Besides preserving the ever-precarious archive of feminist thoughts and activism, these films devise new ways of looking, of engaging with activism through a visual medium. Fists and cameras were raised, not only out of anger and frustration, but also in the joyful, defiant spirit of feminist solidarity.

Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal

Actor