I Am FEMEN

The Ukrainian feminist group FEMEN was formed to protest regional injustices but wound up casting its net wider in the wake of greater recognition. The women going topless (in a cold country, no less) as a protest tactic has attracted varying degrees of outrage, prurient interest, and genuine admiration. unlike Kitty Green's 2013 FEMEN film, Ukraine Is Not a Brothel (VL-3/15), which offers a broader (and more critical) portrait, director Alain Margot's I Am FEMEN focuses primarily on one member, Kiev-based Oksana Shachko, who co-founded the group in Khmelnitsky as “The New Ethics Committee.” Her relatives and friends describe her as “a real revolutionary.” Whether protesting on behalf of rape victims or neglected zoo animals, she makes masks and banners, but complains that she does most of the prep work herself. When she isn't working on FEMEN activities, she paints religious icons and she once considered joining a convent. Her colleague, Anna Hutsol, explains that the group pays expenses through donations and purchases from their online shop (selling t-shirts, posters, etc.). During filming, they travel to Paris, Minsk, and Moscow, where they protest on behalf of oppressed Arab women and against the dictatorship in Belarus. As a whole, the women believe that they are using sexuality to draw attention to worthy causes, while at the same time breaking down stereotypes about feminism. It's hard to tell if they're actually making a difference—especially since they equate publicity with progress—but as Shachko's supportive mother notes: they're certainly brave. By film's end, the movement continues, although some core members have left the Ukraine for countries where protest is less likely to result in long prison sentences—or worse. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)