Decolonial feminist aesthetics and sensibilities in filmmaking

Abstract

This article focuses on the corporeal, affective, creative worldings which are at the core of decolonial feminisms, allowing us to imagine life otherwise. It explores these questions through the analysis of the feminist decolonial films that have not yet received all the attention they deserve. Although many theoretical works have been written on decolonial aesthesis, they rarely analyse individual artworks, while analytical texts mostly address specific local histories and do not translate into other contexts.

In this article, we explore two feminist films from a decolonial perspective: Forty Days of Silence (2014) directed by Uzbek visual artist/filmmaker Saodat Ismailova and Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (2023) made by Estonian filmmaker Anna Hints. We selected these films because we are affectively and corporeally linked to them through our roots in Central Asia and Estonia respectively and because these films connect the decolonial and the postsocialist in enriching ways for the current discussions on decolonial feminisms in the postcommunist world. Despite their very different historical imperial-colonial trajectories these regions share the Soviet and post-socialist experience and the specific strategies of coping with these dependencies.

Through a close thematic and cinematic analysis, we suggest that while the two authors draw on different cultural practices and ideological and imperial/colonial intersections, they overlap in their interpretation of decolonial healing through focus on matristic rituals. We argue that rethinking of narrative/script conventions, improvisation and development of specific decolonial feminist cinematic gaze through alterations in ordinary camera work are crucial elements of feminist artmaking that contribute to decolonizing worldings.