Women's Essay Film in Francophone Europe: Exploring the Female Audiovisual Thinking Process

This article aims to analyse women’s essay films in Francophone Europe, exploring the presence of a gendered audiovisual thinking process and considering both the formal aspect and the thematic dimension. The research allows the characterisation of a female audiovisual thinking process determined by both self-representation and the vindication of women filmmakers as creators of images and women’s topics through the reflection on female alterities. First, the research analyses the enunciative devices used and their evolution—the (self-)portrait, the letter, the diary, the autobiography, autofiction and dialogue—to create essay films whose audiovisual thinking processes are mainly generated within the images through the mise-en-scène, and through the juxtaposition between visual image and sound image. Second, the study analyses the topics addressed,  which mostly revolve around gender issues and trace a path that goes from gaze to alterity, intersubjectivity, and sisterhood. Women’s gaze makes possible the reflection on feminine alterities in order to confront or identify with them, leading to the construction of intersubjective spaces for reflection that become artistic practices of sisterhood. Finally, the study concludes women have been delayed in reaching the position of the essayist as a manipulator of images, due to the need to vindicate the figure of the woman filmmaker understood as a creator of images.