A huge banner with the names of victims of feminicides in France. At the heart of a documentary screened this Sunday, May 22, several members of the feminist collective Les Colleuses unrolled the list of a hundred women victims of domestic violence and deceased since the summer of 2021.
Angélique, Evelyne, Sofya, Nadia, a woman… The names or identities of the 129 victims of feminicides in France, “since the last Cannes Film Festival” in July 2021, were displayed on the steps of the Festival. The activists, dressed in black, posed in front of the swarm of photographers present since the launch of this 75th edition of the Cannes festival. All before shrouding the famous red carpet in black smoke.
The scene was captured by photographer Raymond Depardon, whose son Simon made the documentary Riposte féministe with Marie Perennès. The latter followed with their cameras these activists sticking, rather at night, messages on the walls of cities to denounce gender-based violence, street harassment and bring messages of support to victims of sexual assault.
The screening of the film, presented this Sunday in a special session, was once again the occasion for a demonstration for the feminist collective. The members present in the room thus raised their fists when the director spelled out their first names.
“We’re in black because we’re in mourning,” the splicers told AFP after the screening, “We weren’t going to come to Cannes to pose, we didn’t want to walk up the stairs smiling, but like activists, not like actresses,” who hid the smoke bombs in their underwear. “In fact in Cannes, too, we reclaim the space as we reclaim the street,” said Thaïs Caprio. “Actually feminists are coming to Cannes and not just on screen.”
Earlier in the week, another feminist punchline marked the 75th Cannes Film Festival. An activist denouncing the rapes committed by Russians in Ukraine burst into the red carpet, bare-chested and bloodstained panties, on Friday May 20. A few seconds before being stopped by the security services. On Twitter, the action was claimed by the Scum movement, defining itself as “radical” feminist.
