Julie Gayet

Paris, July 1793. The situation is explosive and the Terror is in full swing. In the midst of this world of violence and change, there is only one constant: women have no right to anything. Olympe de Gouges is one of the few who dares to speak out against this injustice. A woman of letters and fighting, Olympe was a direct opponent of Robespierre. Arrested by state police, she awaits trial, locked in a detention center. Among the other women convicted, Olympe will continue to fight.

Is it more difficult for a woman to direct a movie? To finance it? To be respected by her team? Does she have a different way of looking at the world? Does cinema have a gender? In our two previous documentaries, we had already asked these very contemporary questions to 20 female and 20 male directors in France. But we have been eager ever since to expand the borders of our work, to question women filmmakers around the world. That is what this film has achieved, from Asia to Africa and Europe… All the women we met were funny, sincere, committed, concerned, and all looking for the best possible way to exist in an environment always governed by men. All FilmmakErs and living witnesses of the dysfunctions that still exist in the film industry.

Is there such a thing as strictly feminine cinema? Is it more difficult for a woman than for a man to direct a film? Is gender parity necessary in the industry? Actress and producer Julie GAYET and actor and director Mathieu BUSSON ask these questions to twenty French woman filmmakers, who face a camera together for the first time. After over an hour of lively, informal, spontaneous and funny interviews, it becomes obvious that these issues are still problematic and definitely worthy of a documentary. As Mia HANSEN-LØVE remarks, “In the eyes of the people, a woman’s film is always a woman’s film, while a man’s movie is simply… a movie”.