Maso et Miso vont en bateau

As the UN’s “International Year of the Woman” came to a close in 1975, French TV ran a programme called “The Year of the Woman: Thank God! It’s Over,” which assembled various questionable statements by French men to which the only female guest, then State Secretary for Women, Françoise Giroud, was supposed to respond. Maso et Miso vont en bateau is how the feminist video activists “Les Insoumuses” – Carole Roussopoulos, Delphine Seyrig, Nadja Ringart, and Ioana Wieder – responded to this evening: with fury and ample wit, they intervene from the editing table to expose not only the show, but also Giroud’s very office as being the farce of a patriarchal society. “No television image can represent us; we’ll tell our own stories with the help of video.” (Berlinale)