Mision & Vision

Centre Audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir was founded in 1982 by Carole Roussopoulos, Delphine Seyrig, and Ioana Wieder. These feminist activists, all video practitioners, placed the preservation and creation of audiovisual documents that had then been identified concerning the history of women, their rights, struggles, and creations at the heart of their mission. The Center’s primary mission continues its creators’ aims: disseminate, preserve, and add to the very rich audio-visual documents, mainly composed of videos.

Actions Led

Disseminating and promoting the archive collection first involves showing the films and attending festivals and meetings. It also means that the archive catalogue and film extracts have to be accessible to a wide audience, thanks to a database accessible online, as well as to researchers who wish to view films at the Center. Lastly, it must be possible to rent and sell films or extracts.

Enhancing or enriching the catalog is an ongoing aspect of the Center’s work while staying connected to today’s creation and integrating new productions that their directors or creators ask the Center to disseminate and distribute. Enriching is also a question of filming and recording feminist events. It is also contributing to fight discrimination linked to gender and sexual orientation by organizing workshops which deconstruct a variety of audiovisual documents, analyzing stereotypes that they carry and suggesting alternative ways of seeing.

This work can be suggested by the Center’s team or can come about to respond to requests from other organizations and institutions. Each type of audience involved – schools, associations, activists, prisons, businesses – receives a made-to-order program. The Center also contributes to contemporary creation and new film productions by making its rich archive collection available.

Projects That U.S. Donors Can Support

With their contribution, US donors can support:

– Activities to preserve, catalog, distribute and promote films made by women and LGBTQ+ individuals, based on the Center’s collection of 1624 titles gathered since the 1970’s.

– The organization of screenings followed by debates, trainings and workshops to raise awareness on gender stereotypes and all types of discrimination.

– The filming of events regarding the rights, struggles and history of women and LGBTQ+ individuals in France, in order to preserve them for future generations fighting for the rights of women and minorities all around the globe.

Donate