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
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