Carole Roussopoulos
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| image = Carole ROUSSOPOULOS.jpg
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| birth_name = Carole de Kalbermatten
| birth_date = 25 May 1945
| birth_place = Lausanne, Switzerland
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2009|10|22|1945|5|25|df=y}}
| death_place =
| education =
| alma mater =
| years_active =
| notable works =
| spouse = Paul Roussopoulos
| awards =
}}
Carole Roussopoulos (25 May 1945 – 22 October 2009) was a Swiss film director and feminist who was primarily known for her pioneering early documentary films of the Women's liberation movement in France. She made approximately 150 documentaries during the course of her career.{{cite web |title=Caméra au poing ! |url=http://www.carole-roussopoulos.fr/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190807122254/https://www.carole-roussopoulos.fr/ |archive-date=7 August 2019 |access-date=August 11, 2014 |website=Association Carole Roussopoulos}}
Early life
Carole de Kalbermatten was born 25 May 1945 in Lausanne, Switzerland.Fernandez Ferrer, Nicole. [http://www.newmedia-art.org/cgi-bin/show-art.asp?LG=GBR&ID=9000000000083169&na=&pna=&DOC=bio "Carole Roussopolous: Biography"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714165212/http://www.newmedia-art.org/cgi-bin/show-art.asp?LG=GBR&ID=9000000000083169&na=&pna=&DOC=bio |date=July 14, 2014 }}, New Media Art, Retrieved 11 July 2014. She grew up in Sion, Switzerland in the canton of Valais.
Career
In 1969 Roussopoulos and her husband, Paul, created a film collective called Video Out.Palmer, Tim and Mitchell, Charlie. [https://books.google.com/books?id=D12koXm378AC&dq=Carole+Roussopoulos&pg=PA107 "Carole Roussoplous"], Directory of World Cinema: France, {{ISBN|978-1-84150-563-3}}, pg.107. In 1970, at the urging of her friend the author Jean Genet, she purchased a light-weight Sony Portapak camera and began to make documentaries. It is believed that she is the first woman in France to buy a video camera.{{Cite book|title=Feminism Art Theory: An Anthology 1968 - 2014|last=Robinson|first=Hilary|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|year=2015|isbn=9780631208495|pages=280}} That same year she made the documentary film Genet parle d'Angela Davis (known in English as Angela Davis Is at Your Mercy) about the American political activist Angela Davis. During her early career, Roussopoulos also witnessed and filmed key events in the human rights crusades in Paris. For instance, her 1971 film FHAR (Front Homosexuel d'Action Révolutionnaire) documents the very first gay rights parade in Paris.
In 1976 Roussopoulos began collaborating with the French actress Delphine Seyrig. Together they directed the 1976 documentary on women's rights entitled SCUM Manifesto, based on the SCUM Manifesto written by the radical feminist Valerie Solanas. In 1982, Roussopoulos, Seyrig and Ioana Wieder founded the Simone de Beauvoir Audiovisual Center—named after the prominent French feminist author and philosopher—to document the women's rights movement.{{Cite web |title=Who are We? |url=http://www.centre-simone-de-beauvoir.com/ENGLISH/who_we_are/introduction.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140314174453/http://www.centre-simone-de-beauvoir.com/ENGLISH/who_we_are/introduction.html |archive-date=14 March 2014 |access-date=11 July 2014 |website=Centre Simone de Beauvoir}}
In 1995 she moved back to Switzerland to document Swiss subjects that she felt were not receiving enough attention. During this time she made a series of films about healthcare, disease, aging, and death.
Les Insoumuses
Roussopoulos, Seyrig, and translator Ivana Wieder formed the feminist collective video Les Insoumuses in 1975 after meeting at a video-editing workshop that Roussopoulos organized in her apartment.{{Cite journal|last=JeanJean|first=Stephanie|date=Summer 2011|title=Disobedient Video in France in the 1970s: Video Production by Women's Collectives|journal=Afterall|volume=27|pages=4–13}} The name, Les Insoumuses, is a neologism combining "insoumise" (disobedient) and "muses." The collective produced several videos together, focusing on representations of women in the media, labour, and reproductive rights.{{Cite journal|last=JeanJean|first=Stephanie|date=Summer 2011|title=Disobedient Video in France in the 1970s: Video Production by Women's Video Collectives|journal=Afterall|volume=24|pages=4–13}}
=Select filmography=
- LIP (series of six videos, 1973–1976)
- Y'a qua pas baiser (1973)
- Les Prostituées de Lyon parlent (1975)
- Maso et Miso vont en bateau (1975)
- SCUM Manifesto (1976)[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379485/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_lk3 "Scum Manifesto"], Internet Movie Database (Imdb), Retrieved 11 July 2014.
- Debout! Une histoire du mouvement de libération des femmes (1999)[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0287981/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_lk1 "Debout! Une histoire du mouvement de libération des femmes"], Internet Movie Database (Imdb), Retrieved 11 July 2014.
- Cinquantenaire du deuxième sexe: 1949-1999 (2001)[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0380266/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_lk2 "Cinquantenaire du deuxième sexe: 1949-1999"], Internet Movie Database (Imdb), Retrieved 11 July 2014.
Death
Roussopoulos died on 22 October 2009 in Molignon, Switzerland.{{Cite web |last=Sentin |first=Marine |date=24 October 2009 |title=La mort de Carole Roussopoulos, réalisatrice féministe |url=https://blogs.mediapart.fr/marine-sentin/blog/231009/la-mort-de-carole-roussopoulos-realisatrice-feministe |access-date=2022-05-10 |website=Mediapart |language=fr}}
Recognition
In 2001 Roussopoulos was named a Knight (or Chevalier) of the Legion of Honor in France for her thirty-two years of service to film.[http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000000404675 "Décret du 11 avril 2001 portant promotion et nomination"], Legifrance, Retrieved 11 July 2014.
Legacy
In 2011 the Swiss filmmaker Emmanuelle de Riedmatten made a documentary about Roussopoulos's life called Carole Roussoupolos, une femme à la caméra.{{Cite web |date= |title=Carole Rossopoulos, une femme à la caméra |url=http://www.artfilm.ch/carole-rossopoulos-une-femme-a-la-camera |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124135747/http://www.artfilm.ch/carole-rossopoulos-une-femme-a-la-camera |archive-date=24 January 2016 |access-date=11 July 2014 |website=Art Film}}
Reference list
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Category:Swiss women film directors
Category:Swiss documentary film directors