Geneviève, Massachusetts, Paris, and Loudun, 2019, super 8 and 16mm, 30’30. Zoe Meyer.

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Description: Geneviève is an exploration of the history of women and madness in France through practices in Super 8 and textiles. This 30 minute film presents a series of visual poems reflecting on the story of a 19th century French woman who spent her life resisting the confinement of mental health institutions. Geneviève was a patient of Jean-Martin Charcot, a neurologist who influenced the birth of modern psychoanalysis. According to Charcot’s detailed case studies, she was the perfect example of the medical “succubus,” a woman prone to sexual fits and hysteria. But Geneviève--her life, her personhood--was more than this.

Shot on location between Geneviève’s hometown of Loudun and the hospital La Salpêtrière where she was confined, the film seeks to reclaim one woman’s identity by reinvigorating historical spaces with her presence. Employing a mixture of textiles, poetry, archival materials, and analogue film stocks, this film experiments with form in order to challenge traditional storytelling and the legitimacy of abusive power structures. Ultimately, Geneviève explores the complex recovery from intergenerational trauma and redefines how we as a society experience historical pain.