Introduction by Bernadette Saint-Remi - Gabrielle, or the Angel's Leap

There are some meetings that mark your life… When I saw Gabrielle, all dressed in purple, waiting for me by the North Station, I didn’t know that this meeting would precede a source of vitality which would be part of my life for three years on, and for probably much longer.

The telephone call really intrigued me and also, I have to admit, flattered my ego… For once I wouldn’t be the one who would have to convince someone, since she wanted to work with me !

It was far from being a smooth sailing, but what was immediate can be summarized in two words: trust and desire.

This collusion needed to be groomed; it pushed us to overcome the anger, the disappointments, the slowness, and the misunderstandings...

The movie - our movie – comes from all of this too. This mutual respect we gave each other instinctively allowed her an outspokenness, and images for me.

There were some moments of grace during the filming, where all team breathed as one, felt the same energy, the beauty of the moment. An angel was passing by...

What we are actually the most proud of is the dire essence of the movie, i.e., these ties which we patiently wove between her and the society that rejected her so ferociously. They are still tenuous and fragile, but they also have the solidity of the reunions one hoped for so long.

This movie must travel, disturb, question, make laugh or cry. It is full of this, with love as a plus...

Love: Of a father, of two fathers, of a brother, faithful as a rock, of a love, of friends linked together by the same destiny, of a goddaughter who struggles to understand, of a friend who wonders, of another friend who opens the door wide open, and of two absent children, yet so present...

There is also room for doubt, for silent screams, for withheld tears, for moments of plenitude...

An uncompromising portrait, provocative and tender with, above all, a huge desire to be loved..."

Bernadette Saint-Remi.
Director.
Août 2016.

I tried to express my inner identity and I bumped into a wall. Because many people can not or don't want to understand.

One day, I gave importance to my convictions. I stopped letting me be dictated by others. I said “NO” to the way they wanted to selfishly see me because they only thought about of their own normative, reductive, binary-limiting, simplifying, and oxidative stability.

The worst that can happen to oneself is to be controlled by others. When one has the courage to be oneself, not being judged by others, one starts to love oneself and everything becomes possible.

A quest for freedom, a philosophical tale, this is our film...

Gabrielle Lys.
Mai 2016.