After the city walls, the dark rooms: the fight of the “colleuses”, these activists who contributed with their homemade posters to public awareness around feminicides in particular, is at the center of the documentary feminist response, in theaters Wednesday, November 9.
Some of these “gluers”, dressed in black as a sign of mourning, had already marked the Cannes Film Festival last May, where this film was screened out of competition, by rolling out the names of dozens of victims of feminicides on the red carpet. . “Céline, defenestrated by her husband”, “Presumed liars”, “Even my dog understands when I tell him no”, “My body, my choice, and shut your mouth”… It was these messages plastered on walls throughout France, on white A4 sheets, that first appealed to documentary filmmakers Marie Pérennès and Simon Depardon, son of Raymond, the legendary photographer and director.
Their film gives voice to these young women, “the voice of those who have none” in their words. From north to south of France, experienced activists, experienced in feminist theses or themselves victims of violence, they express their anger in the face of a sexist society. “A lot of people who were feminists but had never demonstrated joined us”, explained to AFP, during the Cannes festival, Elvire Duvelle-Charles, “gluer” from Ivry, in the Parisian suburbs, highlighting the “simplicity” of the process.
Initially created to pay tribute to the victims of feminicides, the movement quickly evolved “Because violence starts when you’re eight years old and someone puts their hand on your buttocks in the metro”. Some have found in the collective “listening”, and “Since I’ve been sticking, I’m no longer afraid in the evening in the street”, says one of them in the documentary.
“We wanted to restore the daily life of these women, absolutely not to have people who would tell us ‘you have to think like this, like that’, we would never have listened, explained to AFP Simon Depardon. For this, the team followed the “gluers” during their nocturnal trips but also outside to “having moments when the camera absolutely does not feel is what allows the viewer and the viewer to form their own idea”.
“We say ‘feminism has never killed anyone’, but shouldn’t we go further in the fight?” asks one of them on the screen, immediately contradicted by a another splicer who judges that violence, “it’s dominance”. “We wanted to show that debates like this between activists are what make us move forward, which pushes us to think differently”, said Marie Perennes.
Feminist response also shows hostility towards “gluers”: “We will systematically try to silence them”, says Simon Depardon. Through their messages, the “gluers” want “leaving a mark in the public space, appropriating the street”, they say. It is also in the street that feminists demonstrate, shouting to the police: “Cops, cops, take our complaints!”.
In 2021, 122 women were still killed in France under the blows of their spouse or ex-spouse, according to a report published at the end of August by the Ministry of the Interior. In early October, the collective #NousToutes mobilized and denounced the 101st feminicide of the year in France.