Claire Simon is a French screenwriter, actress, cinematographer, editor, and director.
Early life and education.
Simon was born in Britain and raised in southern France. She grew up in a family of writers and painters.
She took courses in anthropology and studied Arabic and Berber.
Career.
Simon first worked in the film world when she did an internship to work as an editor at the Algiers Cinematheque.
In the 1980s, she started to make narrative shorts. She received a scholarship to attend a prestigious documentary workshop led by Jean Rouch, one of the founders of cinéma-vérité.
Distinctions.
Selections.
Three of her films have been selected for the Quinzaine des réalisateurs, an independent section held in parallel to the Cannes Film Festival: "Sinon oui" in 1997, "Ça brûle" in 2006, and "Les Bureaux de Dieu" in 2008.
The film "Gare du Nord" and the associated "Géographie humaine" were selected at the Festival international du film francophone de Namur in October 2013. There "Gare du Nord" was presented in official competition.
In 2013, a retrospective was dedicated to Simonr at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. The feature films "Sinon, oui", "Les Bureaux de Dieu", "Ça brûle" and "Gare du Nord" were shown. Another retrospective of her works was hosted by the 11th Play-Doc festival in Tui, Galicia.
"Our Bodies" was selected for the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival.
Awards.
She was made an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres on January 16, 2014.
Political views.
In December 2023, alongside 50 other filmmakers, Simon signed an open letter published in "Libération" demanding a ceasefire and an end to the killing of civilians amid the 2023 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, and for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza to be established for humanitarian aid, and the release of hostages.
References.
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