FRANCE/FILE: French short film on sexism, which shows a world where men and women switch gender roles, has created a massive buzz on the internet after getting a little over six million views on a Youtube version

Record ID: 335453

  • Title: FRANCE/FILE: French short film on sexism, which shows a world where men and women switch gender roles, has created a massive buzz on the internet after getting a little over six million views on a Youtube version
  • Date: 14th February 2014
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (FEBRUARY 14, 2014) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) FRENCH FILMMAKER ELEONORE POURRIAT SAYING: "I wanted to make a film about the whole scope of sexism in our society, so it was my own experience as far as slight remarks and things like that happen everyday and it was friends' experience about assault and things like that. So it was like a mix of sexism situations."
  • Embargoed: 1st March 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA627SO0KP905B9PTNRS3WZMOS6
  • Story Text: A French short-film about a world where men and women reverse traditional gender roles to depict a feminist society, has gone viral on social media websites after it was uploaded to Youtube earlier this month, counting almost six million views on Friday (February 14) and rising.
    In the movie called 'Oppressed Majority' by filmmaker Eleonore Pourriat , the protagonist, Pierre, lives a fictional day where women take centre-stage as they jog topless or sexually harass him in the street.
    "I wanted to make a film about the whole scope of sexism in our society, so it was my own experience as far as slight remarks and things like that happen everyday and it was friends' experience about assault and things like that. So it was like a mix of sexism situations," Pourriat told Reuters Television.
    The ten-minute film shows Pierre being offered help by a bare-chested woman jogger as he leaves his building with a baby in a stroller, being teased and insulted as he is on his bicycle and finally sexually assaulted at knife-point by a group of women.
    "Everyday we have sexist remarks, in the workplace or the street, but it's also, I also touched upon in the film, more serious aggressions that could happen to friends, acquaintances etc. So I wanted to create a sort of classic day, it's not a day which is realistic, it's not a documentary, but it's an example of a day where you can see all types of situation from not so apparently serious to something that is very violent, a very violent situation -- rape," Pourriat said.
    Pourriat made the film in 2010 and presented it at various festivals but interest rose only after she posted it on Youtube and soared when it was re-posted with English subtitles.
    She said it had probably touched a nerve in society which four years ago wasn't as raw and that women felt more feminist now than before.
    With the sudden buzz over the film, messages have been pouring in, Pourriat said, from women around the world congratulating and admiring her work.
    But not all comments have been praise, Pourriat said.
    "I got very violent messages too, very hateful messages," she said. "I got messages, positive messages from men too but the negative messages were from men, from really, really mad men. It was really, they were threatening me, as if I had taken something from them, as if I was a danger for them," she said.
    Pourriat now hopes the response she has garnered for 'The Oppressed Majority' drives audiences to watch her next project -- a short-film about hair-removal for teenage girls.
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