Nora Philippe spent over a decade working on Girls for Tomorrow, which had its world premiere in the Open Horizons section at this year’s Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. The film follows Anta, Evy, Lila, and Talia, four young women studying at New York’s Barnard College, as they navigate questions of feminism, patriarchy, and capitalism over ten years. Philippe reflects on her journey making the documentary, the challenges she faced, and her approach to storytelling. For many, Philippe will be very recognisable as director of EURODOC, the international lab for creative documentary.
From the very beginning, Philippe had the ambition to work on the project for an extended period, even beyond ten years. What fascinated her about these four women was their deep awareness of the future. “At their age, frankly, when I was 18, 19, or 20, I didn’t have a vision of the future,” she tells Business Doc Europe. “But because they were politically engaged, they were very concerned about the future, and knowledgeable about politics, the environment, and so on. It was very exciting to imagine a process of common reflection and a filmmaking adventure taking place over a long time.”
She was particularly drawn to the transformative period between the ages of 20 and 30. “There are so many films dealing with coming-of-age at an earlier stage, but I believe so many [important] choices happen in that part of life. As a student, you have certain beliefs and you can be an activist, but what do you do with that once you’re grown up? That’s what I wanted to explore.”
Her journey led her to Barnard College, where she initially interviewed around 30 students. “Evy, Lila, Anta, and Talia stood out because they truly grasped the meaning of these interviews. They were incredibly enthusiastic about the space we were creating together and kept coming back every week,” she recalls. “They felt incredibly free in the way they talked. They belong to a generation that grew up on social media, but the documentary space is totally different. I believe they found a freedom and real depth they couldn’t find elsewhere. For them, this space was also therapeutic to some extent, and that was the same for me. I was looking for answers—about motherhood, freedom, feminism—answers I couldn’t find in any other way.”
Each of the four women brought a unique perspective to the film. “Anta told me from the very first meeting that she had lost her parents. She had been homeless at some point in her life, and she managed to create a life for herself through her intellectual talents, which makes her very special,” Philippe says. “Talia was extremely brave, advocating for women’s and LGBTQI+ rights inside the Jewish Orthodox community. Lila was on a deeply personal path, questioning gender and gender norms in a very intimate way. Evy, charismatic and brilliant, became a community leader fighting for environmental justice in Texas.”
Despite the intimate nature of the project, access was not a major challenge. “The real challenge was redefining every year, together, what we would film,” she explains. “At some point, I left the States, and when I returned, we curated the sequences collaboratively. It was quite a co-operative process.”
The past decade has been marked by significant socio-political shifts, and these inevitably influenced the making of the film. “I wouldn’t say there were tensions [among us], but there were challenges—COVID kept us apart, and there were moments of depression and great despair. We all felt anxiety during the George Floyd protests, Trumpism, and Trump’s comeback. This past autumn was particularly difficult for me while finishing the film.”
On the technical side, Philippe focused on developing a specific filmic language. “I was looking first and foremost for trust. Then, progressively, I aimed for an aesthetic that was observational yet cinematic,” she underscores. “I wasn’t searching for sexy, hectic moments but rather a way to express their inner world. The whole statement of the film is that the intimate is political. I wanted to show how they were personally building their own journeys—including their most energetic and hopeful moments. My editor and I sifted through over 100 hours of footage, searching for sequences that reflected their intimate journeys. Everything in the film is political, not just personal.”
Ending such a long-term project posed another significant challenge. “When you’re in development, you need to edit trailers and sample footage, but I only truly started editing in March 2020. We then went back for a full year in 2024,” she reveals. “Finding the right ending made it difficult to finance the film—TV networks and investors thought I was crazy for promising a film that would be ready in ten years! We started filming when Obama was in office, and by the time Trump was still threatening American society and politics with a second mandate, it became clear that we needed to continue until the November [2024] elections were over.”
Now that the film is complete, its journey is just beginning. “Mediawan is handling sales. We co-produced the film with RTBF and ARTE, but given what’s happening in the US, they requested an early broadcast. The film will be aired in about two weeks, and we’re planning more festival releases afterward.”
As for what’s next, Philippe is already working on a follow-up. “One of the girls is pregnant, another is about to get married, and Anta married a woman this summer,” she shares. “So I’m already filming the second part of this story.”
