In 1977, Claudine Bories armed herself with a microphone and a camera to document the working-class neighborhoods of Aubervilliers, on the outskirts of Paris. Her decision to interview the neighborhood’s women — mothers, schoolgirls, shopkeepers, factory workers — and the men in their lives resulted in a landmark capture of the era’s ideas around gender. Presented online in a new restoration completed by Bibliothèque National de France, Femmes d’Aubervilliers offers a time-capsule of ‘70s France that raises numerous questions about how women are seen in society then and now.

Shot on black-and-white magnetic tape — like that of similar videos made by the feminist collective Les Insoumuses in Paris — Femmes d’Aubervilliers is evidence of the democratization brought about by new camera technology in the ‘70s. And, with Bories’ straightforward questions about topics such as abortion, domestic work, and contraception, the film also reflects the radical spirit of the era. As Yaël Halbron put it, “Bories takes the pulse of everyday feminism and of a society in the throes of change.”

“1977: the UN proclaimed the International Year of the Woman. I was very young, the daughter of working-class parents and a feminist; I was doing popular theatre at the Théâtre de la Commune. The women who interested me were the women I encountered every day — the women for whom I performed Molière and Brecht, the women of Aubervilliers. I didn’t want to make a ‘pamphlet’ but rather a ‘street film,’ shot on the fly. For me, the Year of the Woman was just hot air — women’s year should be every day.” CLAUDINE BORIES

Shortly after making Femmes d’Aubervilliers, Bories made a kind of companion piece with 1981’s Juliette Goes to See the Men (which has also been restored in 2K by Préludes). This time around, Bories interviewed different men about their behavior, societal attitudes, and social rituals. Together, these two documentaries offer a vivid snapshot of gender norms in late ‘70s France, foretelling the inquisitive filmmaking Bories would become associated with such works as the divorce doc Monsieur contre madame (2000) and asylum-seeker investigation Les arrivants (2009).

Claudine Bories was born in Paris, France, in 1952. At age 16, she dropped out of high school and got involved in radical theater groups, including the famous Théâtre de la Commune in Aubervilliers. Soon after, she started making documentaries of a personal and political bent. In 1980, she started the first arthouse cinema in Aubervilliers and one decade later became involved in the creation of Association for Independent Cinema and its Distribution (ACID). In 1995, she met the filmmaker Patrice Chagnard and the two have been co-directing films ever since.

Text written by Nicolas Pedrero-Setzer. Special thanks to Yaël Halbron at Revenante Films, a festival and sales agent dedicated to restored and rediscovered cinema.