It’s not every day that you have the opportunity to present your film to the French National Assembly. Quebec director Geneviève Albert received this prestigious honor on Wednesday evening in Paris.
It was Catherine Coutelle, a former French MP, who invited Geneviève Albert to show her feature film “Noémie says yes to elected officials” in the screening room of the National Assembly. Ms Coutelle, one of the co-authors of the French prostitution law passed in April 2016, was inevitably challenged by Noémie dit oui, a powerful film about the hell of youth prostitution.
Young actress Kelly Depeault plays a 15-year-old teenager who falls into the vicious cycle of prostitution during the Grand Prix weekend in Montreal.
“When she saw my film when it was released in France last May, Ms. Coutelle said that it was essential that it be presented to the National Assembly in order to reinvigorate the debate on prostitution,” admits Geneviève Albert, who appeared the next day in Paris was there for the demonstration.
Geneviève Albert has presented “Noémie dit oui” at dozens of festivals and premieres around the world for a year and a half. But the demonstration on Wednesday evening in the French National Assembly will remain in his memory for a long time.
“It was really impressive,” she says. We had the opportunity to visit the meeting room where the National Assembly’s political games take place. It is an impressive building with frescoes by Eugène Delacroix on the assembly ceilings. It is very prestigious to present a film there. You can hardly have a greater honor.”
PHOTO PROVIDED BY GENEVIÈVE ALBERT
And why not in Quebec?
Noémie dit oui, released in Quebec in spring 2022, has won more than twenty awards worldwide and has just received four nominations at the Québec Cinéma Gala, including one in the Best Film category.
Geneviève Albert is thrilled with the impact her first feature film had where it was shown. However, she would have liked the Quebec government to also be interested in her film to highlight the problem of prostitution.
“What strikes me is that the way the film is reworked in France is much more pronounced than in Quebec,” she points out. It’s still surprising.
“It would have been fun if the Quebec government had used this film to raise awareness among elected officials and make the current law more active. We have a law that punishes prostitutes and pimps, but it is rarely enforced. This is a pity. I hope things will change in the near future.”