Director Biography – Jeanne DRESSEN

Come and meet Jeanne Dressen, one of the directors selected for the 13th Edition of the Festival du Film Merveilleux.

Jeanne Dressen

An early cinéphile, Jeanne Dressen began studying cinema in college. As a trained documentary cinematographer, Jeanne has worked primarily as a videographer and audio/visual reporter for French television channels, especially Ciné+. During this time Jeanne made two documentaries.
The first, “Moradores” is about Portuguese immigrants living on the Brittany island of Groix. It was screened on French television. The second, “À ma place”, is a portrait of a young working-class woman seeking to reconcile her political commitments with her acceptance into France’s most prestigious university, l’Ecole Normale Superieure. This film was self-produced and was released in 2020 in French cinemas. The film received an immense amount of positive press (Le Monde, Libération, Télérama…).
Jeanne’s latest film, Mirage, is her first fictional comedic short, in which the script won the « HLM sur cour(t) » competition. The film was awarded by three prizes (direction, 2 public prizes).


Jeanne uses film as a means to grapple with urgent social and political questions – the assimilation of immigrants in France, class mobility, the invisibility of particular forms of labor or how women understand themselves in a patriarchal society, how public space transformed into mausoleums for democracy after the 2015 Paris attacks. Mirage is no exception–it seeks to expose the invisible role of cleaning women in everyday life through a particular comedic tone, inspired by the universe of Jacques Tati and Aki Kaurismäki. Mirage is a tale of solidarity.

Film in competition: MIRAGE

Synopsis: Alexis is sent to a low-income apartment building by a cleaning company to find the cleaning lady who disappeared. This simple quest turns into an odyssey of initiation.

Year: 2023

Runtime: 17’3

Production: O·H·N·K

Country: France

Language: French

Credits:

Line producer: Thierry Bohnke. Assistant director: Justine Cohendet. Sound engineer: Emmanuel Le Gall. Executive producer: Thierry Bohnke. Scriptwriter: Jeanne Dressen. Director of photography: Léo Schrepel. Assistant operator: Marilou Caravati. Camera operator: Matthieu Abily. Production director: Julien Triger. Film editors: Juliette Kempf, Cécile Perlès. Sound editor: Romain Le Bras. Script: Angélique Mary. Production designer: Alexandre Rossi. Music composer: Alexandre Zapata. Casting: Sophie Martin. Costume designer: Marilou Caravati. Grader: Eudes Quittelier. Make-up artist: Eugénie Boucon. Sound mixer: Romain Le Bras. Sound designer: Alexandre Zapata.