Serendipity
French artist Prune Nourry transforms her breast cancer journey into an intimate artistic exploration of body, mortality, and creativity.
Serendipity began as a book, published on the occasion of Prune Nourry's solo show at the Guimet National Asian Art Museum in Paris in 2017. The French-born, New York-based artist has spent the majority of her artistic career creating work that deals with women's bodies and female fertility. A recent breast cancer diagnosis led Nourry to create Serendipity — turning her medical odyssey into an intimate artistic undertaking that leads her to find new meaning in her work and its serendipitous relationship to her own survival. (Source: IMDb + artnet News)
- Year
- 2019
- Hunter's role
- MōVi Operator & Drone Operator
- Director
- Prune Nourry
- Type
- Feature Doc
- Runtime
- 80 minutes (estimated)
- Countries
- China (Hong Kong), France (Paris), USA (NY)
Collaborators
- JR — Artist, Filmmaker, Photographer. Based in Paris and New York.
- Kevin Macdonald — Director/Producer.
- Darren Aronofsky — Founder, Protozoa Pictures
- Angelina Jolie — Founder, Atelier Jolie
- Enfant Sauvage
- Robert D. Yeoman — Cinematographer.
- Prune Nourry — Sculptor, Multidisciplinary Artist
- Alastair Siddons
Awards
PREMIERE: Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) — February 2019 (World Premiere, Documentary Form section) NO MAJOR WINS CONFIRMED SELECTIONS: • Berlinale — Documentary Form (2019) • Limited theatrical release via Cohen Media Group (October 2019) RECOGNITION: • EPs include Angelina Jolie and Darren Aronofsky • Agnès Varda filmed the opening sequences (her final film appearance before death March 2019)
Festivals
Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) — February 2019 (World Premiere, Panorama Dokumente section) • Tribeca Film Festival — May 2019 (post-screening Q&A with Nourry, Darren Aronofsky intro at Quad Cinema) • MoMA Doc Fortnight • Private Paris screening — October 2019 (Angelina Jolie spoke about 'the power of art as healing') • Limited theatrical release (Cohen Media Group)
Real-world impact
Prune Nourry's decision to document her breast cancer treatment and its intersection with her art created an intimate portrait of creativity as survival. The film opened conversations about body image, fertility, and female agency, particularly through Nourry's 12-foot sculpture The Amazon — a female warrior covered in acupuncture needles made of incense sticks, unveiled as a public act of healing. Agnès Varda's final filmed appearance, cutting Nourry's braid before chemotherapy, became a poignant intergenerational moment connecting two artists facing mortality through their work.