On the day of the DVD and VOD release of Odd Pepen’s documentary À la vie, AlloCiné met the director of this film about the profession of motherhood and midwifery.
Od’s Pepin documentary À la vie, which was released in theaters last October, is available on VOD and DVD. The film tells the story of Chantal Birman, a liberal and feminist midwife who has dedicated her life to defending women’s rights. At almost 70 years of age, she continues to visit those who have just given birth to give them care and advice. Between painful moments and strong joys, his visits offer us a rare photo of this delicate moment that is back home.
Also an actor and journalist, Od Pepin worked for France 5, Kindergarten house, Allowing him to meet Chantal Burman. To Life is his first feature film.
AlloCiné: What made you want to make this movie?
Od Pepin: I guess there was no reflection of the mother’s place in society. I met Chantal Birman when I was a journalist Kindergarten house And her speech on motherhood and motherhood support will challenge me.
Midwives are completely forgotten by society. Finally, the midwifery treatment rule says a lot about how mothers are treated in society. And this speech was never directed.
Chantal Birman was a true activist for the right to abortion for women, a true activist in physiology. Maternity is involved in pathologies in the hospital. We booked him on medical assignment, but completely forgot about listening, respecting others, attention, and the wishes and needs of mothers.
Recover the letters of his nobility by listening to others.
With this film I wanted to bring back the letters of her nobility to someone else’s hearing, which is a necessary topic during childbirth.
I also found it important to paint a portrait of this 70-year-old woman who has a lot of experience. What she says about motherhood is very important. I did not want his whole conversation to go to waste because he is retiring.
I was under the impression that if I had not told his story, all his ideas and struggles would have been lost as a treasure on the ocean floor.
What was the biggest challenge of the film? I imagine it was sometimes difficult to chant and get close to these women.
That was the biggest difficulty of the film. This is the first time we have shown the mental and physical closeness that exists in such moments between a woman and her midwife.
I could not get into hospitals and maternity wards. So I went through social security agents from Saint-Denis. I explained my approach to them and it was they who went to see the mothers in the rooms to convince them to be a part of our film.
I decided to go there without a safety net. I had only women on the phone 10 minutes before the filming that we see in the documentary, Chantal did not know them.
So I had to convince them that this was an important film, especially since those moments were never documented.
The biggest difficulty was convincing fathers who did not want to take their lives.
The women who agreed to the game were trusted to the end. During pregnancy we are accustomed to exposing our bodies and it was finally quite easy to capture them in these intimate moments.
They were all “without a mask” and Chantal’s confidence was complete. He made them very comfortable and they really let go.
When you make a documentary, you should know that what happens is not our fault. I did not know who I was going to shoot, but I greatly trusted Chantal and followed my instincts.
I knew I wanted to shoot these women very closely. Because these are women who really look up to other women. If you want to see what people think in the movies, you just have to shoot them very close.
The film has the form of magic because it spins everything that is felt without saying it. You just have to sit down and look at these women to understand them. This is all that medicine and society are no longer doing. They no longer sit down to look, listen and talk. We swim and no one listens to anyone.
When you have a fairly honest approach, magic takes place. Is a form of dance that takes place around the camera, where everything that needs to happen happens.
What message do you want to convey with À la vie?
I want us to really ask ourselves how we treat our coming into this world as we treat our end in this world … we need to be able to ask ourselves and think about it.
We live in a society that is moving so fast that we no longer think about essential issues.
The return of humanity to the most human act: the giving of life.
The idea was to just sit down, look at each other and then exchange thoughts to move things forward. Also, return the means to women in the postpartum period. This is still one of the biggest challenges of motherhood.
We need to rebuild humanity by doing what is most humane: giving life. We need to think about system excesses and how to get it back on track. It’s a dialogue that turns everything on and so I hope the film is seen by as many people as possible.
Source: allocine
Emily Jhon is a product and service reviewer at Gossipify, known for her honest evaluations and thorough analysis. With a background in marketing and consumer research, she offers valuable insights to readers. She has been writing for Gossipify for several years and has a degree in Marketing and Consumer Research from the University of Oxford.
