In 2017, at the heart of the #MeToo movement, I was studying Sociology and Women’s studies in Montreal. This period was pivotal for me. I participated in grassroot demonstrations for women's rights, studied and listened to many powerful stories from survivors. These testimonies awakened in me a deep awareness of the reality of the violence women endure—violence that, although widely publicized, has always existed throughout history. As a survivor of sexual assault, I realized that through cinema, I had the power to create a historical film in which women would have the space to include their own stories of survival.It was this personal desire that gave birth to Petticoats: to write and direct a film about female solidarity; a sisterhood that would emerge in a toxic patriarchal context. Through Claire and Saule, two women confronted with abuse, the film shows how, by sharing their suffering, they deconstruct impunity and rebuild themselves together. In Petticoats, female solidarity is neither fusion nor romanticism. It is rather manifested through mutual support that offers a form of healing and resistance. Petticoats is also a film about resilience. I wanted to create a film in which the characters and the story would become so real that they would seem to have always existed. For me, making a film is about creating ghosts, traces of realities often ignored or forgotten. Through these specters, I wanted to remind us that abuses of power are not frozen in the past but continue to repeat themselves today, sometimes in different forms. The paradox is clear: as long as power dynamics and silence will persist, History will keep on repeating itself. The ghosts of the past will continue to haunt the present. Nonetheless I believe that through fiction—which has historically subordinated women— granting women a prominent place in the frame makes it possible to reinvent the relationship between them and shed light on their agency.Through Claire and Saule, I wanted to offer a space for reclaiming power in which each viewer and survivor can own the story according to her singular experience. This film invites us, perhaps (I hope!), to liberate our voices and rewrite the story of our survival together.

Gaëlle Graton