Celine Sciamma: Portraits

Celine Sciamma has made three feature films: Waterlilies/Naissance des pieuvres (2007), Tomboy (2011), Girlhood/Bande de filles (2014) and also a short film about homophobia Pauline (2010). With the wide international attention paid to Girlhood, Sciamma is now seen as one of the most giftedcontemporary female directors.Sciamma's films focus on the lives of girls and young women. This is critical to her politics as she links the importance of girlhood to contemporary feminism. Following queer theory's opening of questions of childhood, she offers a novel imprint of child experience, gained through her collaborativework with actors. Her focus on the agency of children allows her to confront critical ethical issues.
Céline Sciamma is the most visible and important feminist, and lesbian, director in contemporary international filmmaking. Her fourth feature, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, competed for the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2019, and intervened directly in debates about the female gaze, sexuality, and specifically how to look at and make a portrait of young women. In her approach to female, non-binary and queer identities, she has focused on the need for agency, binding this imperative into her aesthetic choices and modes of filmmaking. This is the first book-length study of Sciamma’s films, focusing on the relationship of her work to the visual arts, and exploring the relevance of feminist theory to her unique perspective.
Examines the work of film director Céline Sciamma.