Claire Doyon is a French filmmaker and mother to her beautiful daughter Pénélope. For 18 years, Claire accumulated over a hundred hours of footage of her daughter, who was diagnosed with autism around the age of two and a half years old and created a feature film documentary ‘Pénélope, My Love’ (French title: Pénélope, Mon Amour). The documentary was released on July 2021 and has made its international premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), which takes place from January 26 to February 6, 2022
This is a second feature documentary of her daughter Pénélope, with the previous one created almost ten years prior, aptly named after her child. According to IMDb, the first one was a “dazzling portrait of the filmmaker’s autistic daughter, Pénélope.”. For this film, the story expands on the life of Pénélope, as well as recounting the life of Claire as a mother who dedicated her life fighting against her daughter’s disease.
Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder, is a group of neurodevelopmental disorders that develop challenges in social, behavioral and commination skills. In the first two years, Pénélope had no known diagnosis at that time. When she reached the age of two and half, Claire began to notice a regression and hyperactivity Pénélope was behaving with other kids of her age. The tipping point was when Pénélope stopped speaking, playing, and relating. She even woke up screaming in the middle of the night for many nights until she settled down at dawn. Claire was in denial of finding out if Pénélope had autism, until the doctor finally revealed their diagnosis.
As any parent, one could imagine how painful it would feel when they learn from their doctor that their child was diagnosed with autism. The trajectory of the parents’ lives would dramatically change to deal with this truth, and it is up to them whatever they can to raise their child with autism.
Having to process all the emotions she had felt during that time led her to almost giving up her passion in filmmaking. Claire and her husband Nicolas made a deal that he would find a high-paying job to cover any necessary costs for their daughter’s treatment, while Claire focuses on doing everything the can to find treatment for Pénélope. Thankfully, she did not give up filmmaking and instead have a renewed sense of purpose and document her journey with Pénélope.
First, Claire’s purpose in life is her unconditional love in raising her daughter as her top priority. The second, combine it with her passion of filmmaking. Claire has stated that “the camera is both weapon and shield. The film never ceases to emphasise this truth: what keeps her going, is to continue filming what goes on, however painful it might be.”
As a documentary filmmaker, Claire’s art form of creating ‘Pénélope, My Love’ created an opportunity for her to learn and reflect on the battle of autism and recovery for her daughter. It is also a beautiful point-of-view from the commentary of Claire herself to educate the viewers about what life is like as a mother with an autistic child, especially having filmed over the span of 18 years of Pénélope’s life.
Seeing footage of Claire finding clinicians in France to treat Pénélope truly shows the determination she had to give Pénélope the best possible treatment. Even at one point, they relocated to New York city to connect with certified autism specialists and receive the advice on what Claire can do to keep her daughter happy and comfortable at home.
Having gone through a lot of rational academic and medical treatments in the big cities to find a cure of Pénélope, Claire began to realize over time that the ideal child that many parents dream of is not always expected what they turn out to be. Even outside of autism, there could be many reasons why there is no perfect child. It does not necessarily mean a child is flawed.
If anything, a child may need something else outside of the normal city life. As Pénélope’s mother, Claire explored spiritual roots outside of the typical life she grew up from to regain a different perspective of Pénélope’s interactions with the world. All of this comes down to the fact that Claire’s maternal love has always been unconditional, and it is a beautiful thing to see.