Florence Toumieux

BIOGRAPHIE

I was born in France, in Saint-Jean-de-Luz on September 17th, 1977. When I was young, I woke up one morning cross-eyed: in short, I squinted and I saw double. I found it rather funny but my parents were terrified… To tell the truth, a hurricane crossing the house would have been less devastating and I very quickly understood that there would be, in fact, some consequences to this little problem. The first, ugly glasses with double focal points to force my eyes to look straight ahead. The second, 120 orthopsy sessions. And this is how it all started: I couldn't stand my glasses and I took them off secretly, forcing myself to look straight, in vain… until the day I found myself at my paternal grandfather’s house and glimpsed in the viewfinder of his film camera. Instead of seeing double through my atrocious magnifying glasses, I focused on what he was explaining to me: the golden hours for light, the notions of openness, ISOs, and everything he had humbly experienced and wanted to pass on to me. This is how my passion for photography started. When I arrived in Paris at the age of 17 for law studies, I discovered everything that Paris had to offer me: its garden of Luxembourg and its divine light, its cafes with crowded terraces, its amazing exhibitions, its legendary cinemas… its unlimited access to culture… Paris, a living theater in which I was an extra. In the end, I was more eager to discover the Louvre, Versailles, or the Grand Palais than to learn Civil Law. I also loved people-watching on the streets. As an outsider, the famous Parisiens, têtes de chiens (“Parisian dog heads” as they say) were for me the most beautiful and elegant characters. I became more and more passionate about photography and I started shooting, people mostly but also nature, collecting old, used cameras from my grandfather. And since he was fond of the Nikon cameras, I followed in his footsteps. Naturally, I soon became increasingly attracted to moving images. Cinema as an art form was a fascination, along with photography, and the road to filmmaking happened on its own. My love for people, and a strong desire to tell stories, is what compelled me to turn to movie directing and I am very proud to present this first short film “The Jellyfish’s Blood”.

FILMOGRAPHIE