After '75: Women Filmmakers in France

1975 was a key year for women in France. Chantal Akerman’s monumental Jeanne Dielman and Marguerite Duras’s India Song — two feats of female filmmaking starring outspoken feminist Delphine Seyrig — were released. Abortion and contraception were legalized following years of protest by the feminist movement. But what of the years after 1975? In cinema there continued to be a richness of women's films, although not without backlash. — Seyrig, whose collaborations with Liliane de Kermadec, Ulrike Ottinger, Duras, Akerman, and others were born partially out of a feminist conviction, doubly found in them an avenue away from the French industry's backlash to her activism. Thus a more liberated women’s filmmaking largely occured outside of the established studios: de Kermadec, Akerman, and Marie-Claude Treilhou all found production and funding support in Paul Vecchiali, for instance. For women, critical success also did not translate to long-term career and financial success: Patricia Mazuy had to work in TV after a celebrated Cannes premiere, Treilhou’s work post-Simone Barbés has largely been overlooked, and we must remember that even Akerman struggled financially before her death. In highlighting a few films that lie outside of the canon and come after one of the retrospectively key feminist moments in cinema, this series encourages a more thorough exploration of underseen works.