Violette Leduc, In Pursuit of Love

Directed by Esther Hoffenberg

57 minutes / Color
French / English subtitles
Release: 2013
Copyright: 2013

After decades of working in relative obscurity, author and memoirist Violette Leduc exploded onto the French literary scene in 1964 with the publication of her taboo-breaking memoir The Bastard. Engaging frankly with her experience as an illegitimate child, homosexuality, and abortion, Leduc challenged the prevailing censorship of mid-century France and became a controversial icon of lesbian literature.

Bringing together archival footage, interviews with friends and scholars, and the author’s own writing, director Esther Hoffenberg crafts a portrait of Leduc’s literary legacy and complex internal life. A contemporary of Sartre, Cocteau and Genet, Leduc published her memoir with the encouragement and financial support of feminist pioneer Simone de Beauvoir. The subsequent success of her lesbian classic Thérèse and Isabelle further cemented her status, influencing generations of writers to come. VIOLETTE LEDUC: IN PURSUIT OF LOVE explores the remarkable honesty that defined Leduc's writing and continues to impact readers to this day.

“Such a film is empowering to this singular woman who would be a fish in water in our more tolerant era.” —Les Inrockuptibles

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Select Accolades

  • Françoise Giroud Award for Best Portrait, France 2016
  • Best Documentary, Torino LGBT Film Festival 2014
  • Best Documentary, Some Prefer Cake, Bologna 2014
  • Haïfa international Film Festival 2014
  • Ales Itinerances Film Festival, 2017
  • FIPA, 2014
  • Epos, Tel Aviv
  • IFEMA Festival, Malmö, Sweden
  • Pink Apple Festival Zürich
  • Frameline, San Francisco LGBT Film Festival
  • Ankara Flying Broom IWFF
  • FIRE Film Festival, Barcelona
  • New Zealand International Film Festival
  • FIFA 2015
  • Outview Film Festival, Athens 2016

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