Communists Like Us (2006/10) exists as a performance, a double channel and single channel projection, each of which explores the potentiality of a 16 minute sequence from La Chinoise (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967). In this sequence, the indexical figure of activist and philosopher Francis Jeanson argues with the fictional character of Veronique, his Maoist student, played by Anne Wiasemsky. The English subtitles of the sequence are transcribed onto the recto and the verso of a series of mid century Soviet agency archival photographs that depict scenes of communist friendship. Delegations of Indian, Soviet and Chinese feminists are seen visiting museums, factories, schools, nurseries and laboratories, participating in conferences, meetings, plenary sessions and discussions. The contrapuntal conversation between photography, subtitle and music from composers Cornelius Cardew and Ennio Moricone brings a series of discrepant engagements with Maoism into dialogue with each other.
