For centuries, war has been portrayed as a male-centric topic. Whether it's through depictions in media or coverage in the news, the female perspective of war has been prevalent for years, but it only gets pushed to the forefront if the right voice is there to amplify these often forgotten stories. Even when it comes to how war is portrayed through art, the immediate focus tends to be towards the male artists on the frontlines; this is something Margy Kinmonth looks to deconstruct and break with in this new documentary, War Paint – Women at War.
Coming in with a runtime of 90 minutes, this film wastes no time at all getting to the point it is trying to make. Kinmonth, who also narrates the film, proclaims from the offset what this film aims to achieve before moving straight into the first subject of the documentary.
Despite many wars sharing some similarities across the years, a lot of conflicts have unique issues, some of which are rarely spoken about. The film chooses to dart from one artist to the next, allowing for a vast array of wars to be covered, all with fascinating stories and perspectives from the relevant female artists. This approach is great as it lets audiences see how much has changed and also how much hasn't in terms of the brutality of war, the devastation battles can leave behind, and not to mention horrific war crimes, which are often committed by male soldiers.
Kinmonth lets each artist explain and justify the existence of their art and what it means to the war it is connected to. The film opens with Zhanna Kadyrova, a Ukrainian artist who creates her pieces out of tiles and stones, juxtaposing traditions of the country and things they take for granted against the Russian invasion that grows ever closer with each passing day.
One thing this film does well is also showing a singular conflict from two differing artists' perspectives. There's Nina Berman, who went to Vietnam towards the end of the war and photographed some of the life-altering side effects Agent Orange had on the residents of the country. However, towards the end of the documentary, Kinmonth interviews Maya Lin, who is best known for designing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C.. Berman gives a first-hand experience of the aftermath the war left on those living in the country, whilst Lin had to face a battle of her own with the amount of backlash and racist comments she received after taking on said commission.
War Paint – Women at War even takes the time to look back at some pioneering names in female war art, such as Linda Kitson, who was the first female artist to be officially commissioned to accompany troops in battle during the Falklands war, and Dame Laura Knight, who famously painted The Nuremberg Trial in 1946 where she went against her brief and morphed the war-torn cityscape of Nuremberg in the background of the courtroom.
This documentary sets out to do one important job: to showcase what the female viewpoint of war is through the medium of art and whether it lends anything that the male perspective doesn't. In that sense, Kinmonth and co. have succeeded with flying colours. War Paint – Women at War is an important statement about a woman's place in war and what this can tell us in the long run. It's urgent, insightful and incredibly poignant.
War Paint – Women at War is in UK cinemas from 28th March
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