young female cinema professionals talk about their beginnings facing sexual violence and harassment

How do young women starting out in cinema position themselves in the face of toxic behavior? An actress, a stagehand and a director testify to the obstacles encountered and their way of dealing with them.

For several weeks, French cinema has been experiencing new MeToo cases. Testimonies of sexist or sexual violence sometimes take many years to emerge. But how do women who start working in the 7th art position themselves? The beginnings of their careers are accompanied by difficulties in the face of which young actresses, technicians or directors sometimes feel helpless. Everyone tries to find the best response to toxic behavior, even if it means sometimes reviewing their career plan.

“Everyone should say no”

“At one point I said stop”. Jeanne, 27, perfectly remembers a recent problematic shoot. This actress refuses to perform a scene. But this isn’t the first time she’s said no. “There are lots of things that I didn’t accept. Nudity scenes, behavior from the director who has a bit of wandering hands… As it’s a profession of passion, many people have the impression that ‘you have to accept everything.’ The young woman, who attended the conservatory, joined the 50/50 collective, which works for parity and diversity in cinema.

However, she sometimes has difficulty setting her limits. And she’s not the only one. This question concerns several of her acquaintances, actresses and actors, with whom she talks about it. “There’s something terrible, we say to ourselves, and I completely include myself in this, tomorrow a great director offers me a role that makes me want it, but it’s a bit problematic , am I going there ? Honestly, maybe. There is an ambiguity about that. As in all these struggles, everyone would have to say no.”

“When you are a young actress, there is a bit of this injunction that comes from theater classes where teachers tell us that you have to suffer to be good, for art.”

Jeanne, actress

on franceinfo

The strong competition between young actresses adds its share of pressure to accept roles. “Always this old principle of art and suffering, which it would be time to separate, reminds Jeanne. In schools we are not taught at all how to position ourselves in front of a director or director, who are nevertheless figures of authority.”

Harassment representatives “sometimes don’t know anything about it”

Héléna has experienced problematic behavior on the other side of the camera. At 24, she already has six years of experience as a machinist. In particular, she must manage the shooting equipment and the arrangement of the sets on the sets. A position overwhelmingly occupied by men. “I helped carry searchlightsshe remembers about a shoot. I put one on my feet and suddenly I feel a huge slap on my butt. I don’t understand at all what’s going on. I turn around, I’m very angry”. But the young woman “didn’t see himself making a scene” in the middle of everyone busy on set. Especially since she realizes that the man in question, also a technician, is “harassment referent”. The confrontation with him later in the day will achieve nothing.

“I was completely helpless, I asked myself: how come the guy is laughing about this when he has just insulted me?”

Héléna, head machinist

at franceinfo

Since January 2021, aid from the National Cinema Center (CNC) has been subject to the appointment of a harassment representative during long shoots. But the system is not always effective. “Sometimes the people who are designated don’t know anything about itregrets Héléna. I’ve seen references before that didn’t make any sense, like the director or the director’s wife. We need more safeguards on this.”

Other bad experiences have partly led Héléna to reconsider her career plans a little: she decides to change position to become a cinematographer, the director’s true right-hand woman. “He is one of the most important station managers on the plateau, she specifies. Artistically, that’s what I like the most, because I also want to make films. And I say to myself : there, no one will piss me off. Person. We respect you for what you bring and for who you are, and your gender absolutely does not define your work.”

“Stop waiting to be in the desire of the other”

An approach almost similar to that of Noah. This young thirty-year-old, who went to the conservatory, was first an actress. She then seeks to connect with experienced actors and directors, both men and women, to obtain advice and understand their journey. But certain attitudes quickly make her disillusioned. “The goal was directly to seduce me and get me into their bed. With several fairly well-known actors, it didn’t take five or ten minutes before it was brought up.” As a woman, “we are taught to network through seduction, she laments. They expect that from us.”

After two years of experience, she decided in 2020 to also turn to directing. “Because I choose the technicians with whom I work. And that gives me power. Be careful, power is not the same thing as dominationshe warns. It’s also about stopping waiting for someone to want to work with me, stopping waiting to be in the desire of the other, in the gaze of the other, of the patriarchy.” The director, who claims to be a feminist activist, wants to explore themes in her films that are in line with her values.

“Making films also means getting out of a position of control in a certain way.”

Noé, actress and director

on franceinfo

To better surround himself, Noé increasingly uses directories of associations, such as Divé+ or Representrans which “allows filtering”. And she learns about the films of people with whom she is likely to work. “How we represent domination, women, how we film women ?”, she says. A necessary sorting, according to her, to avoid “problematic roles”. But she is well aware of the difficulties that confront her. “There are compromises to be made because often the people who give money for films are not necessarily those with whom we agree.”