Valerie Gaudissart
film director - France

Valerie learned to make films by making them, documentary films,
fiction films, and films which mix up the two genres.
Nearly twenty years have raced by since she began and she has many
projects in progress, projects which are cosmopolitan, where people of
diverse backgrounds and origins meet up, where long roads are traveled
down, the whims of women given free rein, love stories unfolded. She
explores the intimate, inner worlds of her characters, their utopias,
their humor as well as the gravity of their situations.
Making films does not change the world, she says. If it did, given the
hundreds of beautiful films which have been made, wouldn't the world
be a better place? But it can help us to stay watchful.
"Ich bin eine Terroristin", ("I am terrorist") which is her first
feature length film, tells the story of a young girl who leaves home
to follow in the footsteps of an assassinated German revolutionary in
an attempt to change the world. The film was presented at the TIFF in
Tromsø this year.
Before that, she made three fictional shorts: "Apesanteurs"
("Weightless"), 2000, 20', is the story of an imprisoned woman who
gets permission to leave the prison for two days to take care of
family issues. "Mes Insomnies" (Insomnia), 2002, 35' tells of a woman
going on a reverse honeymoon because of a disappointment in love.
"Celeste", 2005, 45' is about a woman who hides her pregnancy. These
films have been shown in many festivals and have even helped her earn
her living.
She also does cinematic workshops in prisons, in high schools, and is
presently conducting one in a residence for abused women.
Her next fiction film is taking form. "You hid Saint Petersburg in
your bag" will tell of an eccentric family who goes off to Eastern
Europe in search of traces of their ancestors.
She lives in France in the countryside, with two children, three
donkeys, one mare, five cats, two ducks, two rabbits, seven chickens
and one husband pianist.
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Valérie Gaudissart