film giffoni 2023

BLOOM

Category: Gex Doc

Through moments in the lives of three groups of girls, images gleaned from the web and live streams of young women around the world, BLOOM delves into the world of today's teenage girls. We delicately observe a hyper-connected but lonely generation inhabited by great lucidity, an inner struggle with self-image obsession, and a need for self-affirmation in the face of a complex sense of alienation.

Original Title Jouvencelles
Category Official Competition
Section GEx Doc
Tipology Documentary, Feature Film
Duration 83’
Production Year 2022
Nationality Canada
Directed by Fanie Pelletier
Screenplay Fanie Pelletier
Director of photography Matthew Wolkow
Editor René Roberge
Sound Félix Lamarche, Luc Raymond
Music Simon L'Espérance
With Salma Harfat, Léane Lavallée-Davis, Marguerite Gagnon, Diana Tovar Coll, Maia Bonardelli, Elia Flici, Andrea Tovar Coll, Paloma Bureau
Produced by Audrey D. Laroche

 

FanieFanie Pelletier

Fanie Pelletier is a Montreal-based director, editor and distributor. She holds a major in Social Sciences, a BA in Film Production and an MA in Film Studies. In 2016, she directed the short documentary PHOTO JAUNIE (Faded Photograph), which was selected at several festivals including Clermont-Ferrand and won some awards. In 2017, she directed the short documentary film VAGABONDS (Wanderers) for CBC. Since 2019, she works at La Distributrice de films as a distributor. JOUVENCELLES (Bloom) is her first feature documentary film. The film won the best debut feature film award at the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival.

“The idea of BLOOM emerged from several circumstances. First of all, there is my long-standing fascination with "web found footage" (documentary films created from videos retrieved from online platforms such as YouTube) [...] Then came my discovery of the phenomenon of live streaming as a parallel reality occupied mostly by teenagers, and even more so by girls. These videos struck me first by their seemingly infinite number and global reach, and then by the relentless loneliness, boredom and emptiness that emanated from them. But what particularly caught my attention were the videos produced by the young women themselves: the way they behave, the way they stage themselves and the way they objectify themselves. The comments they receive and the way they react to them were equally striking. This discovery confirmed my interest in using this material to make a film, while questioning female adolescence in the age of new media.
I quickly realized that behind the apparent vacuity and futility of these videos was hidden a complex sociological richness that reveals a lot about the current world. This phenomenon, or even social media in general, whatever one thinks of it, is an unprecedented window to the adult world of tomorrow. It also seemed to me too easy and reductive to criticize these young girls and their generation, while avoiding a broader reassessment of the society that has shaped them. To avoid obvious, simplistic criticism, I wanted to transpose the complexity of this universe, in its attractiveness as well as its perversity. It was a question of letting us see and hear the intimate reflections of these young girls. They are the ones who navigate in this troubled world, sometimes liberating, sometimes hostile and alienating. They are also the ones who can reveal it to us, in spite of - but also through - the contradictions of their discourse. Through this immersion, I hoped that we could transcend our prejudices to promote a better understanding, while having a critical reflection on contemporary society.”

 

international distribution/distribuzione internazionale
festival contact

La Distributrice de Films
(Canada)
www.ladistributrice.ca