WATCH TRAILER

Looking for Simone

Directed by Nathalie Masduraud, Valérie Urréa

France | 2024 | 82 minutes | French

Chronicling Simone de Beauvoir's journey writing the groundbreaking feminist text "The Second Sex," this film links her pioneering ideas to modern women's struggles.

SYNOPSIS

When Simone de Beauvoir's THE SECOND SEX was published in 1949, it sent shockwaves through society. Her thousand-page manifesto advocating for gender equality, women’s independence, and the liberation of social norms ignited a revolution in feminist thought. For the first time, a woman articulated a piercing and unprecedented critique of male domination, exposing its mechanisms in a postwar world not yet named, but soon to be recognized, as 'patriarchal.' Yet few people realize the impetus for this groundbreaking book originated in the United States, during a lecture tour de Beauvoir undertook two years before she published THE SECOND SEX.

LOOKING FOR SIMONE (dir. Nathalie Masduraud and Valerie Urrea) dissects the origins and relevance of this bible of feminism, charting de Beauvoir’s fact-finding journey across the US to research her book. This documentary is not a hagiography, nor is it just a look back; it’s a conversation with the present. Featuring reflections from today’s leading feminist thinkers – Judith Butler, Silvia Federici, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Angela Davis – it honors both the lasting influence of de Beauvoir’s work, while also exploring the blind spots and limitations. The film challenges us to assess how far we’ve come in the fight for gender equality and where we still need to go. LOOKING FOR SIMONE expands upon de Beauvoir’s foundational work, weaving in 75 years of evolving thought on race and gender. It invites viewers into a new era of feminist revolution – one that is joyfully non-binary, unapologetically free, and radically inclusive.

SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS

  • DOC NYC, 2024
  • FIFA, 2025
  • CASTLEMAINE DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL, 2025
  • VOX FEMINAE, 2025
  • FIPADOC, 2025

ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)

Nathalie & Valérie

Since 2013, NATHALIE MASDURAUD & VALERIE URREA have co-directed several documentaries and web series. Their films primarily focus on the engagement of artists in our contemporary world. In 2018, they received the “Etoile de la Scam”, the top prize from the Civil Society of Multimedia Creators for their film “Focus Iran - A Daring Vision”, coproduced by ARTE.

Director: Nathalie Masduraud, Valérie Urréa 

Executive Producer: Justine Henochsberg, Julie Guesnon Amarante 

Producer: Justine Henochsberg, Julie Guesnon Amarante 

Cinematographer: Nathalie Durand 

Editor: Sylvie Bourget, Valérie Loiseleux


Quotes & Press:

“The philosopher's texts, read in the documentary by César-winning actress Noémie Merlant (for her role in Louis Garrel's The Innocent in 2023), still shine with their modernity, like Simone de Beauvoir's journey, which shines through in her television appearances, and which we take a complicit pleasure in listening to again. But the film's strength lies, of course, in its ability to demonstrate the limits of Simone de Beauvoir's thought and to reveal its blind spots.” - Mouna El Mokhtari, Le Monde

“An intimate and political quest that gives substance to the philosopher's writings.” - Marc Escola, Fabula

“Pertinently addresses the conditions under which "The Second Sex" was written, its reception, and its legacy. But without sanctifying this feminist bible!” - Cécile Marchand Ménard, Télérama 

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