Ciné-Archives: A female gaze at the French Communist Party’s audio-visual archive

Since the 1920s, the French Communist Party (PCF) has used cinema for political purposes. Until the 1980s, a steady stream of films was produced in the communist wake. The result today is an extremely rich audio-visual heritage. Since the 1990s, the non-profit Ciné-Archives has been working to preserve and promote this legacy, with a collection of over 1500 titles spanning from the 1920s to the present day. Ciné-Archives and the researchers who have worked on the collection have also carried out a whole range of archival and testimonial work on the films. However, the identification of those who may have contributed to the directing or production of the films remains partial, as they have often faded behind the militant cause. While the role of male directors such as Jean Renoir, Louis Daquin, Jean-Paul Le Chanois, René Vautier and Jacques Bidou is known, the place of women in this militant filmography is barely documented. The aim of this article is to review the Ciné-Archives collection from a female perspective, shedding new light on the contribution of women to militant communist cinema.