Guest Post by Nanna Frank Rasmussen
Working mothers are not very welcome at the Cannes Film Festival, it seems. This year at least two mothers attending the fest have spoken out about the major barriers they’ve encountered while trying to combine working and attending to their young children.
Polish journalist Anna Tatarska, 32, who has been covering the festival for seven years doing daily bulletins for the biggest web portal in Poland, www.onet.pl, amongst many other things, was incredibly surprised that she couldn’t bring her five-month-old baby to pick up her accreditation. When she alerted Cannes’ press department of her mistreatment, they too disrespected her.
“I was rejected at the gate of the accreditation center with the explanation that due to new security regulations I couldn’t bring him inside. I was sure it was a mistake. It’s just an infant on my shoulder,” she told me. After some discussion she was told the baby needed a special accreditation and was allowed inside. But an hour later she was given a different message: Babies were not allowed in the Palais. That’s when she wrote to the press office asking for some advice. The answer she got disheartened her. “I found the reply very unpleasant. And it hurt me, because it suggested that I was a fool to bring a baby here. The undertone being I am not a professional.”
The head of press department Christine Aimé sent the following reply:
“You have been granted a press accreditation. This press accreditation gives professional access to The Palais des Festivals where journalists can attend press screenings, press conferences, press rooms where all journalists come to work. So there is no need to come to the Palais with a child.”
But it had never occurred to Tatarska to bring her child to any official event at the festival: “All I wanted was a place to breastfeed my son in a quiet and colder place away from the blazing sun and heat in a nearby park. Of course I arranged for someone to take care of my son when I am watching movies and doing interviews. I take my work very seriously and it is not in the least compromised by the fact that I have a baby,” she explained. “I am actually really proud I am here with a baby.”
Every three to four hours she’s had to leave the Palais to breastfeed her son on a bench right next to the festival center. The baby’s caretaker also has a bottle of pumped milk for the times when Tatarska’s work schedule is extra busy. I caught her for this interview between her attending to her child and the first out of seven interviews she is doing today alone.
This is not the smartest move to make by a festival that has been notorious for its problems when it comes to treatment of women, like turning away women not wearing high heels on the red carpet, or this year’s embarrassing photo retouching of the one and only Claudia Cardinale for the official festival poster — making her slimmer than in real life — not to mention the recurrent lack of films by female directors in the main Competition.
“I am not only disappointed, I am also really surprised,” Tatarska said. “Cannes is a unique trendsetter as a film festival. Besides that I have always been in awe of France’s modern approach to family matters, helping women come back to work early.”
“I can’t help but think that there is a double standard here. Would the festival reject a celebrity who is breastfeeding entering the Palais?” she asked.
Tatarska is not the only woman to have a problem this year with a child. On May 24 Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir tweeted the following:
I've had two films in Cannes but apparently having a baby is not acceptable. #CannesFilmFestival #BlockedOut
She had been met with the same issues as Anna Tatarska.
On May 22 she commented on her working conditions during the fest:
I suppose dogs could be tied to a tree but what should I do with my baby? Security shrugged not our problem #WorkingMom #CannesFilmFestival
Unfortunately, the festival is almost over just as this issue is starting to be discussed. This is a very crucial topic for festivals and the film industry in general. Fortunately there are organizations — like Moms-in-Film in the U.S. and Raising Films in the UK — that address the barriers facing parents in the film world.
This is just the beginning of this much-needed conversation.
Nanna Frank Rasmussen is a Danish film critic at the daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten and a member of WIFT Denmark as well as a founding partner of WIFT Nordic.
