“Me Too”, the short film by Judith Godrèche on sexual violence, screened on the Croisette

The 17-minute film is a collection of testimonies from men and women, victims of sexual violence. In official selection, it will be screened on May 15.

The 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will be a platform for the fight against sexual violence with the projection of Me too, the new short film by actress and director Judith Godrèche, who has become one of the French faces of this fight. In her latest film, the actress “highlights the stories of victims of sexual violence”. “So many individual experiences which add to their own and underline their sadly universal character”underlines the press release from the Cannes Festival, which wishes “thus making these testimonies resonate”. In official selection, the film will be screened on May 15 during the opening ceremony of Certain Regard and will be accessible to all at the Cinéma de la Plage.

“Exactly one month later (her) salutary speech, on March 23, 2024, Judith Godrèche seizes the two means of expression that she knows best – writing and cinema – and brings together women and men who have shared their traumatic experiences with her.specifies the press release. “His resounding call for action and collective responsibility in the fight against sexual abuse persisting in French cinema was captured by its strength and its courage, its clarity and its assurance. And far beyond the scope of the 7th Art to question the whole of society which is struggling to open its eyes”underline the organizers of the largest film festival.

A “physical and symbolic space” to bear witness

Me too East “a film in the form of a work composed choir of personal stories told in fragments” featuring “this harsh but saving path, from pain without words to the beginning of liberation through speech.” At the origin of this project, an observation and a question from Judith Godrèche.“Suddenly, in front of me a crowd of victims, a reality which also represents France, as these stories arise from all social origins, from all generations. The question then arose of what I was going to do with them What do we do when we are overwhelmed by what we hear, by the quantity of testimonies?confides the French actress quoted in the press release from the Cannes Festival.

To the thousand people who participated in the short film, “music, dance, images, imagination offer them a space that is as physical as it is symbolic: being together, in the middle of the street, in broad daylight, and occupying the city as a militant gesture. Judith Godrèche, who appeared in around fifty films, wrote and directed her first film All the girls cry in 2010. In 2023, she began producing a series with Icon of French Cinema broadcast on Arte. The one who had launched a call for testimonials on Instagram is behind the camera again for this filme 17 minutes produced after her speech during the César ceremony, where she denounced the “level of impunity, denial and privilege” from the cinema industry regarding sexual violence.

Advancing the fight against sexual violence

The 52-year-old actress filed a complaint at the beginning of the year against directors Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon for rape and sexual and physical violence which dates back to her adolescence. These accusations, for acts that the latter deny, and the positions taken by Judith Godrèche have led to a new movement to free the voices of victims in the cinema industry, seven years after the birth of the #MeToo movement in Hollywood.

The National Assembly approved, last week, the creation of a commission of inquiry into “abuse and violence” in cinema, audiovisual, live entertainment, fashion and advertising, giving substance to a request from the actress. On the legal front, a preliminary investigation was opened in Paris against the two directors.