After three years and 476 matches with men on dating applications, and a certain number of “short relationships that were as nice as they were brief”, director and anthropologist Céline Pernet decides to take the time to investigate her relationship with the men of her generation. Through an advert, she brings together around thirty men aged 30 to 45 years old, living in Switzerland, who agree to talk to the camera about their relationship(s) with masculinity. The director questions them about seduction, sex, couples, love and even paternity, in a quest as personal as it is societal.
The protagonists show an urgent need to discuss contemporary masculinity and share their secrets, cry, doubt and laugh. In Garçonnières, toxic models of masculinity are put into words while inspiring interpretations of masculinity are considered together for the future. With welcome frivolity, the director casts an amused and kindly eye on the masculine world. This film asks us to listen attentively to each other and, one day, to be something other than what is expected of us.
SCREENINGS & AWARDS
World Premiere: Visions du Réel 2022
International Premiere: Sheffield DocFest
2022 Bergen IFF
2022 Mois du film documentaire
2022 EQUIS Festival de Cine Feminista de Ecuador
2023 Dhaka International Film Festival
2023 Solothurn Film Festival
2023 DocPoint Helsinki (Finnish Premiere)
2023 DocPoint Tallinn (Estonian Premiere)
2023 Victoria Film Festival (Canadian Premiere)
2023 InScience Film Festival (Dutch Premiere)
2023 Sofia International Film Festival (Bulgarian Premiere)
2023 Biografilm (Italian Premiere)
2023 FEST- New Directors New Films Festival (Portuguese Premiere)
2023 One Six International Film Festival of debuts of the Eurasian continent
And more: Viljandi Community Cinema
AWARDS
- Honorable Mention in the Golden Lynx Documentary Competition at FEST New Directors New Films Festival 2023
JURY STATEMENT
“For the courage to focus on the many forms of masculinity, revealing the repressed without judging but also without indulgence. For the audacity of the director, who does not shy away from being direct and honest, in a provocative proposal aimed at social change.”
PRESS
Reviews: Film Carnage (EN), C7nema (PT), Sennhausers Filmblog, Filmuforia (EN), Variety (EN)
***
“[Pernet’s] clever way of coaxing out and editing her findings it [sic] what makes this quietly compelling.”
Meredith Taylor, Filmuforia
***
“Céline Pernet brings a personal but objective feel, she gives these men the space to explore their viewpoint, while peppering the journey with her own experience. It continuously ranges from eye-opening, aggravating, interesting and disheartening, it can leave you feeling conflicted and in today’s landscape of film, that’s a useful and unusual experience.”
Film Carnage
DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY
Céline Pernet
Born in 1986 in Nyon, Céline Pernet is an ethnologist and filmmaker living in Neuchâtel. She first studied journalism and ethnology for a Bachelor’s degree before doing a Master’s degree in social and cultural anthropology. She studied in Switzerland at the University of Neuchâtel and in Canada at Laval University in Quebec. Before joining the Climage association as a director, production and production assistant, she worked for 2 years at Caritas with young adolescents in social breakdown. Since 2013, she has actively collaborated in the various projects produced by the Climage association. Since March 2015, she has also been an active member of the AREC Association for Research, Ethnology and Cinema in Neuchâtel and has produced commissioned films for museums, the University and cultural institutions in the region as well as personal projects.
Filmography (selection)
2022 – Garçonnières (doc 90min)
2019 – la faute au croco (doc 40min)
2019 – Culture club (doc 6x2min)
2018 – Mises en jeu (doc 30min)
2015 – Des clients calmes (doc 3min)
CREDITS
Direction, script Céline Pernet
Editing Karine Sudan
Camera Heidi Hassan
Sound Bruce Wuilloud
Composer Sara Oswald
Producer Stéphane Goël
Production company Climage Audiovisuel
Co-production RTS Unité documentaire
PRODUCER’S BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY
Stéphane Goël
Born in 1965 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Works as a freelance editor and director since 1985. Lived and worked in New York between 1987 and 1993. Training in documentary with John Reilly and Julie Gustafson at the Global Village Experimental Center. Collaborated with several artists and directors such as Nam June Paik, Alexander Hahn, Shigeko Kubota. Directed several experimental and poetic videos before moving on to feature-length documentaries. Back in Switzerland, he joined the Climage collective, where he has produced and directed numerous documentaries for cinema or television.
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Climage is an association whose goal is to create and broadcast documentary films that deal with social, cultural and historical topics.
Climage Audiovisuel
Rue du Maupas 8
CH-1004 Lausanne
Switzerland
+41 21 648 35 61
stephane@climage.ch
https://climage.ch/
CO-PRODUCTION COMPANY
RTS Unité documentaire
Links