From Mati Diop To Alice Diop: Two French Senagalese Female Filmmakers Who Have Made History

From Mati Diop To Alice Diop: Two French Senagalese Female Filmmakers Who Have Made History in Cannes and Venice

First it was Mati Diop, the French-Senegalese filmmaker whose first feature film "Atlantics" made her the first black female director to be in the Official Selection in competition for the Palme d'Or and won the Grand Prix equivalent of the silver prize at the 2019 annual Cannes Film Festival, making her the first black female director to win an award in Cannes' 72-year history. And another French Senegalese filmmaker, Alice Diop with the same surname has just made history as first black female filmmaker to win the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, for her first feature, "Saint Omer" and also the Lion of the Future LUIGI DE LAURENTIIS Venice Award for a debut film at the 79th annual Venice International Film Festival in 2022.

Mati Diop was born in Paris on June 22 in 1982 and Alice Diop was born in Aulnay-sous-Bois, France in 1979.

-  By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, Publisher/Editor, NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series.

The following is from an interview with Alice Diop on the making of "Saint Omer".

What led you to develop it as a narrative feature?

A documentary was never the plan. At the time, I was too busy with research, plus we couldn’t shoot in the courtroom and I would never [make the real participants] reenact the proceedings. Anyway, I wanted to recreate my experience of listening to another woman’s story while interrogating myself, facing my own difficult truths. The narrative had to trace a series of emotional states that can lead to catharsis. It’s like accelerated psychotherapy.  

https://variety.com/2022/film/festivals/venice-alice-diop-saint-omer-1235367521/