Bloom

Coming of Age/Everyday life, Canada 2022

They are young, and they spend a large part of their lives online. They see images of bodies, of selfie faces perfected by filters, and say to themselves: ‘I want to be like that too.’ Paradoxically, it is precisely these networks in which young girls sometimes reveal their intimacy, in their darkest corners, up close... Through the eyes of young women who are teenagers in three different groups, filmmaker Fanie Pelletier paints a fascinatingly diverse portrait of a hyper-connected yet isolated youth that is losing its bearings in an image-obsessed society. The trend that is extremely popular among young people, especially on TikTok, is to broadcast their everyday lives live, even if virtually nothing is happening. When Fanie Pelletier discovered the extent of the live video phenomenon, she first had the idea for her documentary film. Fanie Pelletier: "Either people are doing nothing or they are answering questions. There are discussions, some use their artistic talent, there's really everything. For me, it's an incredible social laboratory. It confused me, it fascinated me. I saw that it was mainly teenagers and wondered why they were doing it. I wondered what my youth would have been like if I had lived there." The documentary accompanies the young women in their half-digital, half-real world. Despite their obsession with their appearance and their pursuit of a perfect image, their distress becomes apparent, accompanied by eating disorders and self-harm. Fanie Pelletier accompanies them without judgement, leaving it up to the audience to form an opinion about the intensive use of social networks. Once again, the impression remains that these questions are easier to ask than to answer. The search for identity can often be divided into gender categories. Always online, young people alternately declare themselves to be asexual, aromantic, abrosexual (gender fluid), bisexual or lesbian, and sometimes heterosexual. Fanie Pelletier: ‘I didn't think it was so present in their minds. In one of the groups in particular, it was really an obsession. Their orientation changed during the film. It fluctuated. I discovered something extremely beautiful in this openness, but also confusion, because there are so many possible identities. As a teenager, you try to define yourself, and the multitude of possibilities makes that even more difficult.’
85 min
HD
Starting at 16
Audio language:
French
Subtitles:
EnglishFrench

Awards

Jihlava Int. Documentary Film Festival 2022 Best Feature-Length Documentary Debut
Canadian Film Fest 2023 Reel Canadian Indie Award

More information

Director:

Fanie Pelletier

Original title:

Jouvencelles

Original language:

English

Further titles:

Jouvencelles

Format:

1.85:1 HD, Color

Age rating:

Starting at 16

Audio language:

French

Subtitles:

EnglishFrench

Subtitles (SDH):

EnglishFrench