SYNOPSIS

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”.

PROGRAM NOTE

 A famous French actress who has been acting for
 23 years, Julie GAYET is an intellectual producer
 and screenwriter. GAYET makes her directorial
 debut by producing a documentary, which consisted
 of interviews with French women directors, with
 short-film director and actor Mathieu BUSSON.
 Excited by her first ever film project, GAYET asks
 these 21 woman filmmakers questions. All these
 different woman filmmakers, from French cinema\'s
 godmother Agnès VARDA, actress-directors like
 Tonie MARSHALL, Nicole GARCIA, Julie DELPY,
 to young directors since the 2000s like Céline
 SCIAMMA, Valerie DONZELLI, Mia HANSEN-LØVE,
 Rebecca ZLOTOWSKI, and Géraldine NAKACHE,
 answer GAYET\'s questions with complete candor.
 \"Is there such a thing as a feminine cinema?\" \"Is it
 more difficult for a woman than for a man to direct
 a film?\" \"Are efforts for gender equality necessary
 in the film industry?\" Interestingly, the majority in
 this film are opposed to the idea of using the term
 \'female directors\' and defining the boundaries of
 woman\'s films and femininity. As 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.\" These interview questions
 often put these filmmakers on the defensive.
 But when asked questions about scripts, female
 protagonists, collaborating with male co-workers, the
 filmmakers very comfortably and naturally disclose
 their experiences of making their very first film
 that featured a female protagonist, and also their
 experiences of inequality in the filmmaking scene
 which is largely dominated by men. [CHO HyeYoung]