"Words to my Love" is a freeform adaptation of the poem "Paroles à l'Amie", by Renée Vivien, an openly lesbian poet. In 1906, while it is still considered that female homosexuality is a mental illness, that female desire must be repressed, and that only men are capable of intelligence and creation, she dares to shake up the dominant right-thinking, patiently distilled by religion over time. She dares to confront the judgment-heavy stares. She dares to confront the condamnations of those who judge her to be abnormal simply because she madly loves another woman. 

Drama Romance . 2022 . 5 mn

1906, two young women, who are socially opposed, fall deeply in love with each other.

With Emma Heidsieck, Lisa Louis Fratani,
Karim Lasmi, Édouard Lamoitier, Pierre Saran,
Stéphane Monpetit, Isabelle Langlois, Hester Wilcox

Director Paul Ménagé

AWARD-WINNING SHORT FILM

Words to My Love, winner of the Stage 32 Short Film Contest, was screened in London at the Raindance Film Festival and in Los Angeles at the HollyShorts Film Festival, held at the iconic Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

It went on to receive multiple awards in Dubai — Best Human Rights Film, Best Cinematography, Best Composer, and Best Original Score — and in Houston for Best Human Rights Film.

The work was later acquired by ShortsTV, the cable and satellite channel dedicated to Oscar-nominated short films.


Paul Ménagé (producer and film director
short film “Words to my Love”)

« My name is Paul MÉNAGÉ, I am 28 years old.
I am born with a visuospatial dyspraxia, a hidden handicap. Which makes me, someone different.
And it is this theme of difference, with all the stigmatisations and suffering it it brings, that I wanted to approach in my film “Paroles à l’Amie”, freely adapted from Renée Vivian’s poem, written in 1906.

In the 19th century’s society, female homosexuality is a mental illness, the feminin desire must be repressed, and only men are capable of intelligence and creation.
There, Renée Vivien, an openly gay poet, dares to jostle the dominent common way of thinking : patiently distilled by religion through time. She dares to confront the judgment-heavy stares. She dares to confront the condamnations of those who judge her to be abnormal simply because she madly loves another woman.
In short, she dares taking upon herself her difference. ».