Screening of two short films, followed by a talk with Marthe Perret and her sound person Alejandra Rogghé Pérez, moderated by Nina De Vroome.

Vers la tendresse

(38min, 2016)
This film is an intimate exploration of the masculine territory of a suburban city. Following four young men, we explore a universe where female bodies are nothing more than ghostly and virtual silhouettes. The characters' wanderings lead us inside everyday places where we will track the staging of their virility; while in voice-over their stories reveal without embellishment the unsuspected part of their stories and their personalities.

Alice Diop is a French filmmaker of Senegalese descent. After studying colonial history, sociology and documentary filmmaking in Paris, she started making documentaries about contemporary French society. Vers la tendresse (2016) won the national César award for best short film. Her debut feature drama film Saint Omer (2022) received the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize and the Future Lion for best debut feature at the Venice Film Festival. Alice Diop is also an activist and organiser for gender and racial equity in the film sector, and for political mobilisation of working class youngsters.

mercedes comme papillon

(20min, 2024)
An intimate short documentary portrait of a group of gitanes women in Montpellier, in which they talk about life and love, as they sing and dance. A portrait of these 'valient' women, who struggle to take their space, in their community, and in society, even if it means separating from a husband to make a career. A joyful portrait, overflowing with life, like them, which also lets us glimpse the difficulties of their condition as women, and the paradoxes that the gypsy identity implies.

Marthe Perret is French and studies filmmaking at KASK in Ghent. This is the premiere of mercedes comme papillon.
www.instagram.com/marthe_perret