Directory of Research and Expertise

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Research Summary and Profile

Research interests:

Screen Studies

Research keywords:

Film and Media Studies, Filmmaking, Gender and Queer Studies

Regions:

Europe, North America

Summary of research interests and expertise:

My academic research focuses on the relationship between film, the politics of representation, cultural history, and gender & queer studies. I am interested in the impact of power dynamics on individual and societal identities.  

It's so queer! Les masculinités dans les films de Vincente Minnelli et Jacques Demy (published by Peter Lang in June 2023) examines performances of masculinity in the post-World War II films of French director Jacques Demy and American Vincente Minnelli. Rooted in cultural studies, this work explores Demy and Minnelli’s musical and melodramatic films as ambivalent gendered discourses and locates them within the socio-cultural contexts of Hollywood and France.

I have also produced a significant body of shorter works for books, journals, and more popular media outlets. I have co-edited Analyser l’intersectionnalité au cinéma.Circulation d’un concept en France et aux États-Unis, the first special issue on intersectionality and films and media studies in the French peer-reviewed journal Mise au Point. This issue gathers articles in both French and English, and explores the complexity of appropriating a singularly important American theory in France. As a freelance journalist at Le Monde, I wrote about French society with a focus on culture and education. For So Film, I have written about cinema and society, including a series of articles on the relations between Hollywood and the CIA for which I interviewed several former agents. I also covered the Cannes film festival, the Bologna Cinema Ritrovato festival, the Cinema du Réel festival and wrote regular reviews. I contribute regularly to French media, where I discuss film culture and analyze contemporary films and TV-Shows (Arrêt sur image, France Info, etc.).

Aside from my academic work, I am also an independent filmmaker. I recently directed and produced Lights of Baltimore, an 83-min documentary about the Baltimore uprising following Freddie Gray's death in 2015, which explores systemic racism, such as redlining practices and zero-tolerance policies, and the racial policies that led to urban segregation. Lights of Baltimore is my first feature film, co-produced with Flying Impalas Productions (my Baltimore-based film company), and Westward Productions (a Los Angeles film company founded by Beau Willimon and Jordan Tappis.

The film has screened in international festivals including St. Louis International Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival, Ocean City Film Festival (best feature film winner 2021), Ischia Global Film Festival (Italy), The Rasnov Histories and Film Festival (Romania).

Languages:

	Spoken	Written
French	Fluent	Fluent
Spanish	Fluent	Fluent
Italian	Fluent	Fluent
Latin	Good	Good

Publication Details

Related publications/articles:

Date	Details
01-Jul-2023	It's so queer! Les masculinités dans les films de Vincente Minnelli et Jacques Demy Monographs Au-delà de leurs univers oniriques souvent qualifiés d’enchantés, les films musicaux et les mélodrames de Vincente Minnelli et de Jacques Demy témoignent des mutations socio-culturelles d’après-guerre. Ces productions du cinéaste de la Nouvelle Vague et du grand représentant de l’âge d’or hollywoodien sont emblématiques d’un style camp apprécié à la fois des publics populaires, des tenant·e·s du cinéma d’auteur·trice et des sous-cultures queer. A partir d’une analyse des masculinités articulée aux dimensions de sexualité, de classe et de race, le livre examine les représentations de genre entre la France et les États-Unis, à l’heure où la Guerre froide, la société de consommation, la décolonisation, mais aussi les mouvements féministes globalisés transforment profondément les identités individuelles et collectives. L’autrice explore comment les films de ces deux cinéastes, reconnus internationalement mais jamais rapprochés, façonnent des modèles de masculinités alternatives fondées sur des valeurs empathiques et inclusives. « Outre les rapprochements novateurs entre les films de Minnelli et Demy, ce livre démontre admirablement qu’il est non seulement possible mais important de fonder les approches esthétiques traditionnelles sur une analyse rigoureuse ancrée dans les gender studies. » (Phil Powrie, professeur émérite d’études cinématographiques, University of Surrey, Royaume Uni)
01-Dec-2022	Analyser l’intersectionnalité au cinéma Circulation d’un concept en France et aux États-Unis Edited Book

Research Projects & Supervisions

Research projects:

Details
A monograph about Claire Denis  Claire Denis et les territoires du désir (under contract with Playlist Society)
Filmmaking projects Melhina: a project that tackles the role of women during the Algerian War. This hybrid project investigates women's role during the Algerian War and its legacy, with the objective of producing an archive, a short documentary and a feature-length fiction film about trauma, memory, and gender.   I am currently developing two feature film projects (Melhina and a book adaptation).

Consultancy & Media

Available for consultancy:

Yes

Media experience:

Yes

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