Reel Affirmations Review: Our Bodies Are Your Battlefields
'Our Bodies Are Your Battlefields' is an exceptional work of art that could just as easily take place in any major metro area in the U.S.
Furious debates over abortion access and bodily autonomy. Tough conversations on trans rights. An interlocking tension between a resurgent feminist movement borne out of exhaustion with gender-based violence and the framing of how issues like sex work continue to divide people who are far closer in worldview than they imagine themselves to be.
Isabella Solas’ documentary Nuestros Cuerpos Con Sus Campos De Batalla (Our Bodies Are Your Battlefields) (★★★★★, CRITIC’S PICK) is an exceptional work of art that could just as easily take place in any major metro area in the United States.
Solas follows the advocacy and leadership of two trans women: Violeta Alegre, an anthropologist, activist, and instructor on LGBTQ identities, and Claudia Vásquez Haro, the founder and president of Otrans, one of Argentina’s most prominent trans rights organizations.
What’s most striking about the documentary are the conversations had among well-informed and empathetic women — trans and cis, alike — that are nevertheless familiarly exhausting to any trans person who’s been asked to define and defend their humanity.
A scene that comes to mind is early on when Violeta is teaching a room of cis women about the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity.
This is a very simple concept, but Violeta, ever a diplomat, calmly explains what should be obvious and does so in a manner that seeks to avoid hurting any feelings over a lack of effort on the part of those learning. She even pokes fun at herself by alluding to what she imagines will be a hint of annoyance from some of her cis students over evolving terms.
Every trans advocate will recognize Violeta’s calm diplomacy and hear the ever-so-subtle sense of tiredness in her voice — a familiar exhaustion — and every cis viewer who has not yet learned these basic concepts will likely be impressed with her diplomacy and wonder to themselves why every trans person can’t be that nice and patient.
Another conversation is between Violeta and a small group of cis women, at least one of whom appears to be skeptical over decriminalization of sex work, and Violeta must patiently walk them through the basic lines of logic in doing so.
Argentina has had impressive advancements in LGBTQ equality, becoming the 10th nation to legalize same-sex marriage and one of the few countries in the world with comprehensive protections for trans and nonbinary people.
And yet, it still struggles, in many ways, to circumvent traditionalist attitudes toward bodily autonomy. Solas’ documentary brilliantly highlights the collective struggle of all women to reject state-based control of their bodies and reinforces an emerging truth that has, sadly, yet to catch on with many cis women: if they can control any individual’s body, they can control the collective.
Our Bodies Are Your Battlefields screens at Landmark’s E Street Cinema on Sunday, Oct. 23, at 2 p.m. and is available in the virtual festival through Sunday, Oct. 23, at 11:59 p.m.
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