When Women Film History: History of a Secret (Mariana Otero 2003)

Women filmmakers' contribution to documentary started in France from the post-war period onwards and their films have been varied in their topics as well in their forms. The increase in feminine documentaries was seen as a political weapon in the 1970s. At that time women's documentaries dealt mostly with the present and the contemporary. Portraits of figures from the past especially artists are more prevalent in the following decade. In the 1990s with the return of political films, there is blurring between documentary and fiction with characters rather than witnesses. This article dissects Mariana Otero's Histoire d'un secret (2003). This documentary seems to be at the crossroads of how women's documentaries were made in France since the war. It is the portrait of a talented artist, but it is also and above all a criticism of the secrets surrounding the death of thousands of women who went through with illegal abortion in the 1960s and 1970s. This article analyzes how the film expresses the invisibility and secrecy of women's suffering and the dilemma it raises for visual representation. It also blends the idea of the personal joins the political (the artist was the director’s mother). Otero plays the role of the filmmaker and the daughter discovering a family secret which leads to the awareness of a political issue; illegal abortion. This conjunction of the personal combined with the political contributed to a new style of documentary filmmaking in France in the 1970’s which influenced Otero’s 2003 film. Rollet, Brigitte. "Quand les femmes filment l'Histoire: Histoire d'un secret (Mariana Otero, 2003)." Studies in French Cinema 10.3 (2010): n. pag. Intellect Ltd.. Web. 15 Apr. 2011.