Pauline Gay studied Literature, Art History, and Performing Arts before entering the directing department of La Fémis. There, she directed several films selected in numerous major international festivals. “Tomorrow Will be Fine,” her graduation film, was presented at the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival and won the award for Best Short Film at the Ghent Film Festival as well as the Créteil International Women’s Film Festival. It was also nominated for Best European Short Film at the European Film Awards. Pauline is currently writing a feature film supported by the Fondation Beaumarchais – SACD.
At this year’s Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Tara Karajica sat down with Pauline Gay to discuss her short film “Pavane” that screened in the National Competition at the festival, as well as her views on the short form and the situation of women in film today.
How did you get into filmmaking and what inspires you?
Pauline Gay: I was studying Art History and one day I had to do an exercise where I had to direct a short film. While making it, I realized that I just could not stop thinking about it, from morning to bed time. I was obsessed like never before. I can easily get bored and it was the first time that I actually felt truly alive. Filmmaking helps me to be in the present moment. It changes my relationship to time. It was the first time that I didn’t see the days going by. I felt useful. A few years later, I entered La Fémis and discovered documentary filmmaking with director Claire Simon. Something happened. Constantly observing people and filming them was a pretext to speak to them. Sometimes, I meet someone and it feels like love at first sight, but a cinematic kind of love. A “cinematographer love thunderbolt.” I start writing their story in which they will play their own role. I bring my sensitivity to it, my imagination, sounds and images. I am always trying to make poetry enter reality.
Can you talk about your short film, Pavane?
P.G.: Pavane tells the story of Cora. She has been working for years in a slaughterhouse and it’s now time for her to retire. But, at the same time, Alex, her daughter, is entering the working life. She has decided to become a filmmaker, but Cora doesn’t support her choice. Two visions of what work is are at odds in this film. Working to be able to sustain yourself, a paycheck job, a day job compared to Alex’s project, which is a passion job. A choice to try and live off what you like. We all know this saying by Confucius that you find in Christmas crackers: “Choose a job that you like and you won’t have to work a single day in your life.” What if this sentence were a lie? For philosopher and economist Frédéric Lordon, that type of mentality just promotes the exploitation of the individual. Capitalism has always played with our emotions and feelings to motivate us to work more. Either sadness like the fear of not earning any money, or excitement like consumption or happiness at work. We are now facing a social and ecological emergency. Maybe now is the time to re think our dependence to work and productivity in order to find a way to build an unchained relationship to time, less focused on results and de-commodified.
How do you see the short form today?
P.G.: A short film is like a laboratory where you can try out different types of storytelling and take risks in directing – in all aspects. For a film director, finding his/her own style, his/her intimate way of telling a story is vital. And, to find your own style, your personal touch, you need to explore. Short film is the place for epiphanies and it must be preserved.
What is your opinion on women in film today?
P.G.: Women are still minor as directors and on film sets. Their salaries and budgets are also still smaller compared to men’s. But I feel that some progress has been made when it comes to their selection in film festivals. I also have a thought for all the women, who, like me, have been the victims of violence and discrimination on film sets. I always hear people say “let Justice do its work!” I find it a little too easy to just rely on the justice system when only one percent of rapes are sentenced. Women have the right to speak out.
Who is your favorite female filmmaker and what is your favorite film by a female filmmaker?
P.G.: Andrea Arnold and her film Fishtank. A beautiful combination of the social film genre and the poetic imaginary. Her vision is full of tenderness and she always keeps herself at the right distance. The bittersweet characters are full of imperfections but never stigmatized. They are so well-played and portrayed that I feel like I’m with them, like I know them, like I can actually smell their perfume. I would also like to mention Chloe Zhao too and her film Nomadland. A portrait of Americans who are downgraded, who have been left aside. Victims of a brutal social and economic system. Chloe Zhao’s strength resides in her ability to make the real world enter a story and her way of working in harmony with both professional actresses and some for whom it was their first time on a film set. Her film encourages us to listen and praises contemplation.
What are your next projects?
P.G.: I am working on a feature that focuses on a parenthood center. A place for young parents who are lost in their parenting and are supported there by educators who help them build a relationship with their children. In this moment and place of their lives, these young parents have the space to dream their future lives and build plans. Before coming back to their lives, they are given the time to let their imagination run wild.
Photo credits: Courtesy of Pauline Gay.
This interview was conducted at the 2024 Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.
