The cinema-audiovisual option at Marie-Curie high school in Vire Normandie is currently facing the threat of elimination. Following Jeanne Marchalot’s testimony, Hanna Ladoul has agreed to testify as well.
Hanna Ladoul is currently scouting in La Réunion for her next feature film, “De nature humaine”. This project marks a journey that started far from film sets, between the Paris region and Bocage virois.
The director recalls growing up between these two worlds before settling in Campeaux at the age of 13. “My mother fell in love with Normandy,” she says, before opening a podiatry clinic there, firmly anchoring the family in this rural area.
Her passion for cinema was born at Collège du Bény-Bocage. Her history and geography teacher, Jean-Pierre Dupréc, introduced her to the discipline, enriched by the intervention of Youri Deschamps, a former cinema option student who is now the editor-in-chief of the magazine “Éclipses” and a teacher at the University of Caen. Moving from the Paris region to settle in Campeaux may seem like a cultural break. However, it is in this context that an unexpected path opened up: that of cinema. The initiation continues in Vire, where a cinema-audiovisual option offers “demanding education, a rare option in rural areas, now threatened with elimination”.
This trajectory quickly proved decisive. Admission to the Cannes Journalism School (EJC), which only accepts about twenty students out of hundreds of applicants, was a first recognition. Hanna Ladoul emphasizes the quality of the training she received in Vire. According to her, the acquired level allowed her to directly integrate into a third year of cinema studies at the Sorbonne Arts School after two years of DUT.
The Premiers Plans d’Angers festival, in which option students participate, serves as an initial introduction to the professional world. Hanna Ladoul describes it as “a very qualitative festival”. It is in this context that she meets director Cyprien Vial, along with Arielle Leva, an actor’s agent who also went through the option. This meeting was decisive. Cyprien Vial becomes a reference figure for her, to whom she can turn for advice or internships.
Even today, the director maintains a connection with her training territory. With each new film, she presents it at Cinema Le Basselin in Vire. She meets the cinema option students, extending a chain of transmission to which she now belongs, and which she sees as fragile today. She remembers being a student herself, a few years ago, when she attended the visit of director Cédric Anger, a former student of the Marie-Curie high school cinema option, who came to present “Le Tueur” in 2007.
In a different vein, Hanna Ladoul aims to debunk certain preconceptions. Writing, filming, production, post-production: all these professions are often invisible to the general public. She also emphasizes the weight of the sector, which is largely underestimated and often unknown in terms of opportunities.
Hanna Ladoul believes the existence of such an option is essential. She highlights its vitality, making the high school and the town a true cultural anchor in rural areas, currently under threat.
