“Free Our Bodies: Flaming Feminist Action” is a documentary omnibus, co-created by Yoon Ga-hyun, Ryu Hyun-ah, and Lee Ga-hyun, all of them member of the Korean feminist organization Flaming Feminist Action. The movie premiered at the 23rd Seoul International Women's Film Festival.
The collection consists of three short pieces, ‘Titty Sisters', ‘My Body, My Choice Tattoo', and ‘300', each of them around twenty minutes long. ‘Titty Sisters' is about Flaming Feminist Action's campaign agains the objectification of the female body, ‘My Body, My Choice Tattoo' is about tattoos in Korean society and women collectors and creators of tattoos, while ‘300' is about young women in politics.
‘Titty Sisters' traces the campaign by Flaming Feminist Action for the normalization of the female body and the cessation of the objectified way in which women are perceived by Korean society. They do this through various protests, some of which are no-bra topless ones which garner a lot of media attention and become one of the things the collective is most widely known for in the country. As Yoon Ga-hyun says in the beginning of the short, at one point people google the collective's name because that's the only way for them to see natural breasts. But then the social media sites that host the photos start deleting them, claiming they are obscene. This leads to new protests, this time against the social media companies, new waves of media attention, and online hatred.
Although the short touches upon many of the events explored in depth in “Boundary: Flaming Feminist Action,” here they are discussed in a different tone and setting. Here, they do it through relaxed conversations the director has with her fellows for the organizations. Some of them are done while they prepare for another protest, others – over tea and oranges. This allows the participants to be more open about their views on the topic. One of them, Mi-hyun, even goes as far as to criticize the way they did the campaign, because it focused more on the performative aspect, rather than trying to create a context in which to explain to the public why they do it. Moments of reflexivity such as this one are abound in the short, showing the viewer that despite how they are depicted in social media, the protesters are complex thinkers who try to change society by shocking it.
Despite its serious subject matter, ‘Titty Sisters' is very short to watch. Containing lengthy scenes of Hyun-ah, Ga-hyun, and Si-won, the three organizers of the protest the short is made around, writing funny slogans like “The mask is stuffy enough, do I need to wear a bra, too?” or applying sticker tattoos, the short points to the fact that activism can be also fun. It is also technically the most accomplished and visually most varied one in the omnibus. The filmmakers use different techniques like hand drawn scrapbook-like animations, social media footage, banner-like slogans, and others, all managing to convey the message of the short much better.
Sadly, the same cannot be said about the other two short in the omnibus. Shot in a much more solemn tone and made up almost exclusively of interviews, ‘My Body, My Choice Tattoo' and ‘300' are unimpressive, and at times boring, especially compared to ‘Titty Sisters'. The interviews in both shorts, especially in ‘300' seem a bit haphazard, with questions asked somewhat randomly without any logic to their order. This, coupled with the subpar editing and sound design, makes it difficult for the viewer to engage with (and at times, follow) what is being talked about. That is unfortunate, because they deal with very pertinent topics (the presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung promised to legalize tattooing, while President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's cabinet is an old men's club).
Despite its flaws, “Free Our Bodies: Flaming Feminist Action” is an informative omnibus that sheds light on some of the societal and institutional issues Korean feminists are fighting against. It also expand on and gives more context to some of the topics explored in “Boundary: Flaming Feminist Action.” For that, I think that it works better as a companion piece to that, much better, documentary, rather than a standalone work.
