We Did Not Consent
2024 · 18m · UK
Directed by Dorothy Allen-Pickard
Genres: documentary, experimental
Tones: darkly comic, tender, theatrical
Three women targeted by undercover Metropolitan police officers who infiltrated UK activist networks don theatrical masks to restage and reclaim their stories, blending dark humor and theatricality to confront decades of institutional deception and abuse.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Spy-cops survivors in theatrical masks directing reenactments of their own abuse — that's a formal move with actual moral teeth, not just gimmick. Guardian doc but for once the premise justifies the platform.
Allen-Pickard's masked restaging of the UK spy-cops scandal recalls Joshua Oppenheimer's reenactment ethics in The Act of Killing, transposed into feminist documentary form. The Guardian's platform suits the necessary scope of the subject.
18:27 Guardian-backed doc where survivors of UK spy-cops abuse direct masked actors to restage their own manipulation — that's a formal device that gives victims authorial control over their trauma, not just a stylistic flourish. The category breakdown on Vimeo flagging it as 'theatrical' is accurate; this is documentary as reclamation.
Reviews
Allen-Pickard's documentary puts three women at its front as they re-enact and deconstruct critical scenes in their lives, blending humour and theatricality to examine media portrayals and rewrite their narratives.
Where the women had been systematically lied to for years, building trust was particularly vital. The women were given opportunities to review and provide input throughout key stages of the production.
Festivals
- Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival 2024
- DOC NYC 2024
- Palm Springs International ShortFest 2024
- Watch Docs International Film Festival 2024
- London Short Film Festival 2025