Photo Courtesy of Hot Docs
OVARIAN PSYCOS
Directed by: Kate Trumbull-LaValle, Joanna Sokolowski
In a society that consistently tells women to be afraid and quiet, these Psycos take to the streets on their bicycles, forming an unbreakable team of womxn of colour who angrily and proudly exclaim that enough is enough and the streets will be theirs. Ovarian Psycos is a brigade of cyclists in East Los Angeles which was started by a womxn named Xela. Xela is avidly feminist, and explains throughout the course of the documentary that she was a victim of abuse and abandonment all throughout her life. Now a mother herself, she works to balance her attentions on her activism and her daughter, and not letting the past defeat her. We also meet Andi, a street artist who is slowly becoming Xela’s successor as head of the Psycos, and Evie, a young womxn who lives in poverty with her mother, who wishes that she would stay in instead of biking.
This documentary confronts gender roles and the idea that women should be afraid to be out at night. It very effectively shows its audiences why we should be angry, vocal and support groups such as the Psycos. The documentary is a mix of personal stories from past and present, featuring sequences which show the backlash that the group gets online (such as many comments about how its “sexist” that men aren’t allowed to join the Ovarian Psycos), and several scenes of successful rides. Ovarian Psycos is a feminist, proud and vocal statement on how much needs to change in society, and at a very lean 72 minutes it makes its point with little filler. It’s an igniting watch. (Richelle Charkot)