naked war

Over the course of one year, Joseph Paris filmed the Femen movement from the inside; its acts, its shocks and confrontations, its smokes and noises, but also its circumstances, its doubts, and sometimes its contradictions. One year at the heart of an activism overexposed in mass-media, where its deep reasons remained overlooked, in silence ,or sometimes misconceived. Since meeting these activists in Warsaw in the Spring of 2012, Joseph never left them out of sight.

In the euphoria of beginnings, he filmed the beauty of their spectacular gesture. Then, the tensions of repression and threats, the media disavowal after the celebration, a form of isolation which slowly settled, and a shift towards more radical actions.

The film offers a framework to understand the foundations and the effects of this radical commitment. First, through the activists' own words regarding their actions and their practice of revolt, and also - punctually - via Joseph's interrogations about these representations. But more importantly, through the analyses of Annie Le Brun (poet) and Benoit Goetz (philosopher); their respective work on the question of the body in society, on the political body, offer - each in their own way - a fresh approach to the Femen movement.

Naked War is an essay on the fundamental meaning of this revolt and mode of action