Director Laurent Zeitoun tells BFMTV how the vision of a female firefighter on the streets of New York inspired him to make this film for children.
Kids have a date with a heroine of the daredevil genre: the animated film Valiant, in theaters this Wednesday, features young Georgia Nolan, who dreams of becoming a firefighter in 1930s New York – a profession then reserved for men. A ban that she intends to circumvent, thanks to her strong character.
Because in recent years, the female characters of animation have made their revolution, with heroines like those of the films Rebel Where Rapunzel: “Cinderella, her life is still a wound!”, exclaims for BFMTV actress Alice Pol, French voice of Georgia. “There, we moved on to dreams bigger than finding Prince Charming.”
“What dazzled me was the will of these women”
Behind this Franco-Canadian feature film co-directed by Théodore Ty and Laurent Zeitoun hides a kernel of truth. It all started in New York, as the latter tells BFMTV:
“I hear a fire truck siren,” he recalls. “I see them going down and I’m stuck on a female firefighter. And I’m like ‘damn, there aren’t many of them anyway. And I don’t know why, I start looking (on the internet) for ‘first female firefighter New York’.”
“There was a group of women who went to trial to be accepted,” he continues. “What amazed me was the will of these women. They were ready for anything.”
Like its heroine, who is inspired by Rochelle Jones. In 1982, she was New York’s first female firefighter. Laurent Zeitoun contacted her: “Very quickly, I told him about the story and I told him that I was going to need his experience, because it was very important to ‘talk firefighter’.” And also to speak to little girls, to tell them with this film that no dream is inaccessible to them.
