User:Sillv/Amandine Gay

Amandine Gay (born 16 October 1984) is a French afrofeminis t, director and comedian. Her first film called « Ouvrir la voix » is a documentary focusing on black women by uplifting their voices.

Childhood
Amandine Gay was born anonymously on October 16th 1984, in France. Her biological mother was Moroccan and her father was French. Her adoptive parents, both white, are teacher and road mender. They both live in a village near the city of Lyon (South West of France). Amandine Gay graduated with a degree in communication studies from Institut d’Etudes politiques de Lyon. She is also a dramatic arts graduate from the Conservatoire d’Art dramatique du 16th arrondissement of Paris. : "I have always been to predominantly white schools frequented by racist people. I tried my best to fit in but I was just a black women in their eyes. I have been angry from a young age. Activism came later thanks to a better understanding of politics. In 2005 UMP deputies tried to pass a law about colonialism positive aspects, I was so shocked that I decided write a final year report about colonialism stakes."

- Amandine Gay

Career
She started to work as a comedian after graduation but soon found out that she kept on getting the same stereotypical roles (such as a drug addict, a prostitute and an illegal immigrant). Her agent then informed her that despite the fact they were sending various application, they were only getting responses when it was clearly stated that the role should be given to a black woman. "After 5 years as a comedian I only got two regular roles : one as a lawyer in a TF1 show and one in a play where I was playing various characters. I got tired after 5 years so I stopped acting and became a director instead."

- Amandine Gay

This experience led her to become a director to not only promote a different vision of black woman in the entertaining industry but also be able to play roles that she truly liked. She then started writing short films for various French TV channels but soon struggled to find fundings. Amandine Gay explained that producers, which often happen to be middle aged white men, do not feel represented by her work. She wrote a parody of women’s magazine named « media tarte » shortly after that, with a lesbian black wine waiter main character. This character, inspired by Amandine Gay herself, will face rejection and identity denial throughout all the film.

She started producing her documentary « Ouvrir la voix » in 2014 thanks to a crowdfunding campaign after the Centre national du cinéma let de l’image animée refused to support her project. The film starred 24 Afrodescent women wether they were activist, engineers or influencers. They all discussed their identities as black women living in France. In 2017 the documentary received the Out d’or de la création artistique award as well as the Rencontre internationales du documentaire de Montreal public award.

She wrote a preface titled « Lâche le micro ! 150 ans de luttes des femmes noires pour le droit à l’autodetermination » for the French translation of Bell Hooks’s book « Ain’t I a woman ? Black women and feminism ».

She moved to Montreal, Canada in 2015 after she came to the conclusion that French institutions « do not offer anything that could give proudness to a black children » and is still conducting researches about marginalised topics such as adoption based on a own experience.

She has been part of Osez le féminisme movement and then left because she felt tokenised as the only black person in a group of wealthy white women.

She defines herself as a :  "black cisgender born anonymously afro descent. As well as a pansexual anticapitalist, anti heteronormativity, agnostic, pro choice (including pro abortion, hijab and sex workers supporter) body positive, afro feminist." .

She has co written the book « décolonisons les arts » in 2018 with Leila Cukierman, Gerty Dambury et Francoise Vergès. Her collaboration is mainly about decolonial art, she stated that the decolonial dimension of her art is articulated around three main notions : the re appropriation of the discourse, using aesthetic as a personal and political statement and the re appropriation of production methods. Amandine Gay is a firm believes in uplifting minorities voices and wants her art to be considered as something aesthetic « it was really important to me to produce a documentary about creation. I think people are expecting us (black women) to talk about politics but not in an audacious way. I want to create visually pleasing films as well as cinematographic pieces. She reclaims the political aspects of her films and of cinematographic industry in general but doesn’t want to be seen as a pedagogue.

She is also a member of the 50/50 movement that promotes gender equality and diversity in the entertaining industry. In 2017, she created "le mois des adoptés" in collaboration with la MAIF (French insurance company) inspired by the national adoption awareness month.

Filmography
Sauf indication contraire ou complémentaire, les informations mentionnées dans cette section peuvent être confirmées par la base de données IMDb.