“The Girl Who Cannot Speak,” edited in Carbondale, to screen at Cannes Film Festival
Courtesy photo
“The Girl Who Cannot Speak,” a short documentary edited by the Carbondale-based and Emmy Award-winning editor Krysia Carter-Giez, will have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday.
The 21-minute film, screening in the prestigious festival’s Creative Minds Program, is directed by Stefano Da Fre and Laura Pellegrini. It follows five women’s stories of sexual abuse and includes women from different countries, ages and walks of life.
One victim, Charlotte, a 15-year-old, embodies a thread to each woman’s story. She never speaks. The documentary is among 45 films — from 1,815 submissions — selected by the festival’s Coup de Coeur.
“It is so meaningful and an honor to have this documentary featured in the Cannes Film Festival at such a timely moment in our history,” Carter-Giez said via email Tuesday. “I applaud the women in the film who had the strength and resilience to tell their stories and hope that their spirit will give courage and a voice to all the girls in the world who cannot speak.”
The film was edited in Carbondale and post-production sound was done by Dave Taylor at Cool Brick Studios.
Carter-Giez’s previous works include editing such locally focused documentary projects as “The Last of the Cowboys,” about ranching life in the Roaring Fork Valley; “Fire in the Mountain,” about the mountain soldiers of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division; and AREDAY founder Chip Comins’ “Native Wind.” She has spent the past three years filming with Huts for Vets, the nonprofit that brings war veterans on backcountry hut trips, for a film about trauma and wilderness therapy.
“The Girl Who Cannot Speak” co-director Stefano Da Fre previously worked with Carter-Giez on the short “Tu Me Manques/You Are Missing From Me,” which screened last summer during the Wheeler Opera House’s Sunset Sessions and also played at Cannes.
