“On this planet, half of humanity is male, and half is female. It’s as simple as that. There are wonderful male stories, and there are wonderful female stories. We have just not told enough female stories.”

“When I was growing up as a child, I was always looking for that girl. I looked like Mowgli from The Jungle Book. I also wanted to ride and be with animals and not be in the end, the last five minutes, the pretty girl. We had so few role models. Even in Cannes, there’s a lot of female content even made for men. It’s never against men. It’s just about reflecting the world. 50/50.”

Those words by Emily Atef, director of France’s More than Ever, an Un Certain Regard entry, were among those heard in “Global Voices: Empowering Women Behind the Lens,” the second of two panels presented by the HFPA at The American Pavilion.

The panel was moderated by Helen Hoehne, president of the HFPA, which is sponsoring The American Pavilion at Cannes this year.

Featured in the panel were filmmakers Celine Devaux, Everybody Loves Jeanne (France), director, Critics’ Week; Eleonore Gurrey, The Worst Ones (France), scriptwriter, Un Certain Regard; Emily Atef; and Maryam Touzani, The Blue Caftan (Morocco), director, Un Certain Regard.

On the challenges the panelists encountered as filmmakers, Atef said, “almost all my films are about women in existential crisis. The first one I had in Cannes was about postnatal depression, and it was also a woman that was not very sympathetic. I have the feeling that women need to be sympathetic often to funders in Germany, for sure. I just cannot stand it; that it is still challenging to have women with dark thoughts who take wrong decisions and who are not sympathetic.

 

“I find that emancipation is wonderful.”

“Another challenge is, after five films, I thought that after the success of 3 Days in Quiberon, it would be easier, and the budgets would be higher. It wasn’t, and that’s annoying when I’m thinking, ‘How long does it have to be that I always have to have budgets that are tough where I have to always shoot in so many days and stuff?’ Those are the challenges. But what doesn’t break me makes me stronger.”

Devaux pointed out, “At one point, I realized that I have a mission. I admired so many words from men growing up with such freedom to do whatever they wanted and tell whatever they wanted to, be it fun, vulgar or violent. Suddenly at one point, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m so polite. I’m being so presentable.’ That was a really good feeling that I didn’t give a shit anymore.”

Touzani said, “I never really asked myself the question whether it would be harder for me or not as a woman.”

Gurrey shared, “For me, I would say that my fights are more to have time to write because we wrote for like three years. When you write for three years and it’s a first movie, and it’s very risky because it’s a movie about a movie, and you have like no casting, no stars, and you’re nobody, you just need time. It’s like cooking. I love things that are very well cooked. That’s a big fight in the industry in general. It’s not about just women. It’s just, can we have time to write?

 

“People always want you to make choices.”

Hoehne asked the panelists what was the big break that was presented to them as filmmakers and when was that moment.

Gurrey admitted that she never had that moment. “I was never career-oriented or ambition oriented. I’m very happy to be here. We worked very hard to make this vision and what we had in the heart and the mind. We just fought a lot. I’m very happy people can enjoy that.”

Touzani said, “I was a journalist before I was a filmmaker. I love listening to people’s stories and that’s what always moved me from writing as a journalist to documentary filmmaking.”

“The turning point in my life was when I lost my father. That’s the moment when I realized that there were so many things I felt that I needed to give a voice to, because it also said a lot about the society I lived in, about certain traditions, and things that I had experienced in quite a violent manner.”

“But then again, like we were saying before, there’s something very beautiful as well that can come out of these dark things. In all the darkness, there’s something that’s very powerful. There are these moments when you realize why you’re doing things, and you ask yourself the right questions. That was really the turning point.”

Devaux answered, “When I graduated, I worked in a really shitty day job. I was basically copying and pasting stuff for a communication agency here. What I did absolutely made no sense but I had three days of work that paid for the rest. That was the moment I chose because it was embarrassing. So being embarrassed because you need to write. It’s a good engine.”

Atef said that she wanted to be an actress when she was around 20 years old. When she turned 27, she felt like she was standing like a trunk. “The identity just emerged. This is what I want…. Since then, that was my motive.” She went to a national film school in Brazil where it is free. She got in as one of the 12 people that they accepted. Some of them were only 21 years old while she was already 30.

As for their biggest obstacles in making movies, Touzani replied that she does not want to feel limited just because she is a woman. “I don’t feel like I have to fight all the time. I don’t want to feel limited.”

Atef said, “We just realized it’s so hard to finance because it’s always 50/50, and because it’s politically incorrect to tell a story about the sexual desire of a 17-year-old for a 40-year-old. I got so upset that once in a Zoom call for a big funder and my producer was going, ‘Oh no. This is a film written by a female, adapted by two females, and directed by a woman about the sexual desires of a 17-year-old girl.’ And you’re telling us we’re not allowed to do it because of the MeToo Movement? Are you guys crazy?”

“Why are we not allowed to tell this story? Then the guy of the funding is saying, ‘Well, Ms. Atef, why don’t you just write that down and give it in with the funding?’ That moment, I did that. We got all the funding from all the funding things. Because what could they say? If they say, ‘We can’t give that today. Today we can’t, we just can’t allow those kinds of films because of…’ Then what can you do? You can’t allow a film made about female desire? What the hell?!”

 

 

On their advice to young, aspiring female filmmakers, Gurrey said, “You need to be open-minded and keep your faith.”

Touzani said, “It’s very important because it’s true that you can be very fragile when you write a film. It’s like you’re revealing something so intimate about yourself. It’s something sometimes that is so personal, and all of a sudden, there are so many people reading it, judging it, and giving their opinions about it. They don’t necessarily understand what you’re trying to say. Sometimes it’s just about details but it makes so much sense to you.”

“It’s extremely important to keep a clear mind about that, to keep a certain distance. It’s about keeping a balance between what you decide to take as advice from the outside world or as comments or how you decide to experience them, and what you decide to make of them. It has a lot to do also about the reason, the motivation behind making a film.”

She added, “Make films for the right reasons. Make it heartfelt. Create characters that speak to yourself. You will be spending three, four, or even five years of your life making your film so make it worth your time.”

Devaux stressed, “Get a day job. Do not imitate somebody else.”

And finally, Atef said, “Making movies takes a long time. Sometimes it even takes 10 years. I am lucky to have a very supportive husband. He always tells me, ‘Just let it go.’ But there was something in me, and I’ve already let projects go, but something in me where I felt, and it’s hard as a director because I co-wrote it also with a writer. For me, I’m driven by it. If there’s no money, there’s no money. You get money funding in the beginning.”

“Then it’s really hard to keep the people because at the end of the day, after four years, three years of not being paid, I could understand as well. I really took it and continued alone. I am so happy I did it.

“It also has to do with my mother who passed. Maybe that’s why I have this urge. One shouldn’t fight for it anyway when you can’t. You can’t fight 10 years for something that you find boring. That’s one thing I would say is just believe. If it’s something that’s really there that you have to tell, then just keep it even if it means you’re not going to be paid.”

“Try to inspire people with you to keep the faith. Then after, let them go.”

“The second thing that really helps me, is that I have one friend. I met her when I did my second short film in 2002 now. It’s been 20 years. She did script continuity on my short films. She’s like my creative partner. Now she lives in Singapore. Her critique is so important. If you have somebody whom you trust for so many years, you know that their critique is coming from a good place.

“When you have somebody like that, that you keep for years, it’s just worth gold. I would always say to young filmmakers, find yourself that person.”