Julie Lerat-Gersant

Julie Lerat-Gersant was born in Caen, France, in 1983. After studying theater at the Ecole Supérieure de Théâtre, she founded La Piccola Familia with Thomas Jolly in 2006. She has worked in theater as both an actress and a playwright. In 2016, she  cowrote and directed the project Adolescences and Territoire(s) at the Odéon-Théâtre of Europe in Paris. In 2017, she wrote the feature film ALAND with director Thomas Germaine and, with a grant from the Louvre Museum and La Poudrerie theater, wrote a new stage play. In 2018 she was accepted into the Femis’ Screenplay Workshop, directed by Jacques Ackchoti. There she developed the first draft of her feature film. In 2020, she focused on writing for series at the CEEA [European Conservatory for Audiovisual Writing] as part of a workshop led by Fabrice de Costil where she developed and co-wrote along with François Roy, a medical thriller 6 X 52 MINUTES. In 2021, she directed her first feature film, LITTLE ONES, produced by Escazal Films and distributed by Haut et Court.

My initial desire to write this script and make this film came about several years ago when I was conducting writing workshops in teenage pregnancy centers. These big group houses are filled with teenage mothers and very young children. I was struck by the disarming combination of carefree adolescence coupled with parental responsibilities. The reality of life there is harsh and unfortunately, dysfunctional family patterns are often repeated from one generation to the next. But thankfully sometimes, certain young women have experiences that give hope to others, leaving an impression on the team of professionals working there. Camille is one of these young women. PETITES is the portrait of a young teenager at a crossroads in her life, who breaks with the vicious cycles of her dysfunctional family. A resilient modern heroine, Camille forges ahead and faces, with great courage, a fatalistic determinism.”