WOMAN

Thursday September 26 – 8:00 pm – Truffaut Theatre
(Screening ends at 9:45 pm)
Followed by a Conversation with Writer-Director Anastasia Mikova

Directed by: Anastasia Mikova, Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Written by: Anastasia Mikova
Film Editing: Françoise Bernard, Brigitte Delahaie
Original Score: Armand Amar
Produced by: Fabienne Calimas, Tanguy Apel-Muller (Hope Production)
International Sales: Elle Driver

What does it mean to be a woman? To find out, co-directors Anastasia Mikova and Yann Arthus-Bertrandi nterviewed some 2,000 women across the globe, in this riveting follow-up to their epic 2015 documentary, Human. Filmed over the course of two and a half years, this panoply of womankind shares individual stories, from the most intimate to the cultural, touching upon a vast array of topics — sexuality, marriage, motherhood, domestic violence, freedom, enslavement, body image, love, anger, wisdom… And despite the adversity — at times, the outright tragedy — so many of these women have come up against, they are all absolutely radiant as they give voice to the deepest, truest parts of themselves. Their diversity notwithstanding, the universality of their experiences ultimately resonates with us all.

Born in Kiev, Ukraine, co-director Anastasia Mikova moved to Paris for her graduate studies at the Sorbonne. She has worked as a journalist at Le Figaro Magazine and Marie-Claire, and is currently producing a series for Canal+. Yann Arthus-Bertrand is a renowned activist, journalist and photographer. Especially well known for his 1999 book Earth From Above, he has written and directed several theatrical and TV documentaries, including Home (2009), which was nominated for a César Award for Best Documentary. He and Mikova first met in 2008, when she became editor-in-chief on his France 2 ecology program, Vu du Ciel. Arthus-Bertrand was so impressed with the young woman’s work, he asked her to collaborate, as assistant director, on his feature documentary, Human (2015), which earned prizes at Vancouver and Beijing Film Festivals and won the CinEuphoria Freedom of Expression Award. Of the 2,000 interviews recorded for Human, Mikova conducted 700 of them. So it was only natural that the pair decided to co-direct Woman, which is Mikova’s directorial debut. The documentary will have its North American premiere at COLCOA, immediately following its world premiere in Venice. It will be released theatrically in 2020.

Presented in association with:

BNP Paribas

Elle Driver

WIF (Women In Films)