After the death of his grandmother Emma, Robin Hunzinger and his mother Claudie found a carefully preserved collection of letters which Emma received from a girl called Marcelle. Marcelle and Emma met in the mid-1920s. Secretly, love blossomed between the two teenage girls, but after two years they parted ways. Marcelle developed tuberculosis and was admitted to a sanatorium, where she wrote many letters to Emma, letters that still burn with great evocative power. At the sanatorium, rebellious Marcelle, nicknamed ‘Ultraviolette’, led a group of three young women who were also sick. The film, told through Marcelle’s eloquent letters, combines archive footage, avant-garde films, and music to create a sensuous, poetic atmosphere of absolute love, a daring young woman ahead of her time and a group of kindred spirits which break the barrier of time.
SCREENINGS & AWARDS
World Premiere: IDFA 2021 – Luminous
2021 Festival Chéries-Chéris
2021 LGBT Film Festival Ljubljana
2022 Festival Ecrans Mixtes
2022 Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (Greek Premiere)
2022 BFI Flare Film Festival (UK Premiere)
2022 Peloponnisos International Documentary Festival
2022 É Tudo Verdade/It’s All True (Brazilian Premiere)
2022 Crossing Europe Film Festival (Austrian Premiere)
2022 Dok.fest Munich (German Premiere)
2022 DOXA Film Festival (Canadian Premiere)
2022 Doc Cevennes
2022 Docaviv IDFF (Israeli Premiere)
2022 Underhill Fest
2022 Biografilm Festival (Italian Premiere)
2022 Frameline San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival
2022 Dokumentarist FF Istanbul
2022 Doqumenta Film Festival (Mexican Premiere)
2022 Festival International du Film de Nancy
2022 Queer Lisboa FF
2022 Sofia Documental (Bulgarian Premiere)
2022 Rome IDFF
2022 Everybody’s perfect Film Festival (Swiss Premiere)
2022 MIRAGE Art of the Real Festival (Norwegian Premiere)
2022 Reel to Reel Film Heritage
2022 Pink Screens Festival
2022 Melbourne Queer FF
2023 FIRE!!, the Barcelona LGTBI Film Festival
And more: Queer Moments Domino association, Vox Feminae Festival
AWARDS
- ReFrame Award for Best Creative Use of Archive at IDFA 2021
- Grand Prix at Festival Ecrans Mixtes 2022
- Audience Award at Festival Ecrans Mixtes 2022
- Honorable Mention in the International Competition for Feature or Medium-Length Documentary at É Tudo Verdade/It’s All True 2022
- Special Mention at Peloponnisos International Documentary Festival 2022
- Honorable Mention in the Depth of Field Competition at Docaviv 2022
- Special Mention at Biografilm Festival 2022
- Special Mention at Festival International du Film de Nancy 2022
- Special Mention in Queer Art Competition at Queer Lisboa 2022
- Best Editing Award at Rome IDFF 2022
PRESS
Reviews: Birdmen Magazine (IT), Wanna Be Nerd (PT), Vertentes do Cinema (PT), Business Doc Europe (EN)
DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY
Robin Hunzinger
After studying History and Art History in Strasbourg, Robin Hunzinger studied Cinema in Jussieu with Jean Douchet, Jean Rouch and Bernard Cuau. Since then he has made documentary films about history, war, traces of memory, man in the face of the unthinkable and nature. He is a homefilmaker. He writes, reads, films, scans, frames, retreats, registers, ascends and rises, alone (often) in his studio in the Vosges. Some of his main films include « Où sont nos amoureuses », « Vers la forêt de nuages » and « Inventaire avant disparition ». His films have been shown in numerous festivals: Cinéma du réel (Paris), Etats généraux du film documentaire de Lussas, Festival international du film de Rotterdam, Festival de Thessaloniki, Festival de Beirouth, FIGRA… He won two stars from the SCAM, but also the Grand Prix of the Traces de Vie festival in 2008, the Ahmed Attia Award at the MEDIMED in 2011, the FREEDOM International Prize at the Luxor African film festival, the Jury Special Prize at the Cannes International Pan-African Festival and the Best Documentary Feature Film at the Martinique International Film Festival in 2016.
Filmography
« le recours aux forêts » 92min, 2019.
« L’homme qui voulait savoir », 52 minutes, 2018.
« Inventaire avant disparition », 55 minutes, 2016.
“ Vers la forêt de Nuages”, 62 minutes, 2015. “L’insaisissable Albert Kahn”, 52 minutes, 2012. “Sarajevo : Notre résistance”, 52 minutes, 2011. “Notre camarade Tito”, 52 minutes, 2011.
“La Bête des Vosges : Autopsie d’une rumeur”, 53 minutes, 2008.
“Ou sont nos amoureuses”, 53 minutes, 2007 “Closing your Eyes”, 52 minutes, 2006 “Natzwiller-Struthof : Un souvenir français”, 59 minutes, 2004
“Eloge de la cabane”, 52 minutes, 2003
“Voyage dans l’entre-deux”, 52 minutes, 2001 “Les Pionniers du Paysage”, 43 minutes, 2000 “Gorazde, psychogéographie d’une frontière”, 52 minutes, 1998.
PRODUCER’S BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY
Milana Christitch
After studying Russian at the University of the Sorbonne-Paris IV, Milana Christitch moved to Strasbourg to work as a catalogue editor and network coordinator for the Apollonia association – European artistic exchanges. In 2009, she decided to embark on production and trained at the company Ana Films for which she still works today. She produced more than thirty documentary films there.
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Ana Films
France
anafilms@free.fr
06 52 87 72 24
https://www.anafilms.com
Ana films was founded in 1993 at the initiative of two directors, Gautier Gumpper and Jean-Marie Fawer. We are mainly developing documentary projects that focus on human beings, often anonymous people, their destinies and their implications in our societies – projects that allow subjective truths to make a universal color. One of the main characteristics of Ana films is accompanying first films. In addition, Ana films is open to various themes: society, history, politics, portrait, and recently religion; and to work with different partners (Arte / ZDF, KTO Alsace20, Mosaik, France 3 Alsace, TLSP, France Ô …)
CREDITS
Direction Robin Hunzinger
Screenplay Claudie Hunzinger & Robin Hunzinger
Camera Gautier Gumpper
Editing Benoit Quinon
Sound Operator Marc Namblard
Composer Siegfried Canto
Producer Milana Christitch
Production company Ana Films
