"Sisters! " 2011

Wall text

Petra Bauer  

Born 1970, Märsta, Sweden. Lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. Pronouns: she/her. 

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Southall Black Sisters 

Founded in London, UK, in 1979. 

Sisters! 2011  

single-channel video, 72 mins  

Courtesy of the artists. 

Commissioned by The Showroom, London.  

"Sisters!" was made in collaboration with Southall Black Sisters, a pioneering socialist feminist organisation based in London that was founded in 1979. Primarily an advocacy service for women from black and South Asian backgrounds who have suffered domestic abuse or encountered issues with seeking asylum, the group is also known for advancing a socialist and secularist agenda. The film is structured around a fictitious day at the organisation, focussing on the mundane, unglamorous work necessary for their feminist activism. The opening image captures the film crew in real time as they write their names in the organisation’s visitor book. This image draws attention to the filmmakers’ own labour and places them subjectively within the film. The camera then slowly pans across a wall of black-and-white photographs, showing Southall Black Sisters at various feminist protests. The motif of the telephone call is repeated throughout the film, forming one element in long passages of tedious office work. These images are interspersed with casual conversations in the office, as well as a series of more formal meetings, which provide the audience with additional insight into the organisation’s activism and their socialist, feminist, anti-racist ideological position. Towards the end of the film, three long-term Southall Black Sisters staff hold up colourful banners from their previous participation in public demonstrations and reflect on both the protests and the challenges to creating social change. This scene deliberately situates their political organising on a continuum with earlier moments, re-activating earlier forms of struggle in the present.