SAULE PRODUCTIONS is a production and post-production company founded in 2022 in Château-Thierry, France. It is the result of a collaboration between François-Xavier Destors and Marie Thomas-Penette that began more than ten years ago in Rwanda, centered on the co-direction of their first feature-length film, Football Rwanda, fields of memories, which shaped their vision and ethical approach to documentary filmmaking.
Alongside their respective careers in the documentary industry – in the development, writing, and directing of films and series for television and film for François-Xavier Destors, and in the production of institutional and interactive content, cultural outreach, and distribution for Marie Thomas-Penette – their desire to establish a joint venture came to fruition when they settled in the Hauts-de-France region in early 2022, where they decided to breathe new life into their own projects and those they wish to support.
“Together, we seek to defend films that reflect the challenges of our time, our generation, and our region—films that mirror who we are and bring us together. We affirm our commitment to the documentary form in all its diversity and the freedom of its practices. In these uncertain times, we believe it is necessary and vital to rebuild connections and restore our collective memory.”
A history graduate of Sciences Po Paris, François-Xavier Destors produces, writes, and directs documentaries for television and film.
His first feature-length film, Football Rwanda, Fields of Memories (86’, Arte France, Etoile Scam 2015), reveals how football was exploited to further the racial segregation that led to the 1994 Tutsi genocide. Beyond the political and cultural history of sports in Rwanda, he has long explored the challenges of representing the genocide in film. His reflections are compiled in a book (Images d’après: Cinema and Genocide in Rwanda) and supported by numerous articles and lectures. Since 2016, he has served as editorial director of the website film-documentaire.fr, where he edits the journal Traverses, dedicated to issues in documentary film.
While writing documentary films (Les Voix de Srebrenica, 52’, France 3) and historical series for television (Paris, une histoire capitale – 4×52’, Planète+, CNRS Audiovisuel; Les Années 68 – 2×90, ARTE France, DRK, Histoire TV, Globo), his films focus on the challenges of remembering mass crimes. Notably, he directed Mandela, a Symbol Against Apartheid (52’ France 5), which recounts how the ANC and the international community shaped and utilized the image of Madiba in the service of the anti-apartheid cause, and Thiaroye 44 (56’/75’ – France 24, Public Sénat, TV5 Monde), the first documentary dedicated to the enduring memory of a colonial massacre of Senegalese riflemen committed by French soldiers in December 1944 in Thiaroye, Senegal.
His second feature film, *Norilsk, l’étreinte de glace* (85 min. – France 2, Etoile Scam 2018), is set in a former gulag that has become one of the world’s largest industrial cities – a closed-off city off-limits to foreigners, lost beyond the Arctic Circle. The film, selected by more than forty festivals worldwide, was released in theaters in France.
Two new feature-length documentaries were released in 2024: Toxicily (75′) is set in Sicily around one of Europe’s largest petrochemical complexes, and Didy (82′), in which Gaël Kamilindi, a member of the Comédie Française, sets out to trace the footsteps of his Rwandan mother, who died in 1992, to piece together his family history.
A documentary filmmaker and writer – Football Rwanda, Fields of Memories (86’, Arte France, Etoile Scam 2015); Thiaroye 44 (56’/71’ – France 24, Public Sénat, TV5 Monde) – Marie Thomas-Penette is also a producer and editor.
She conceptualizes and leads audiovisual content projects with cultural organizations in France, Southern Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa; produces educational short videos for international training and publishing organizations; and, through her creative work, updates the digital collections of major cultural institutions such as the Franch Ministry of Culture, the European Historic Thermal Towns Association, and the European Odyssea Group…
Committed to cultural mediation and film education projects for all ages, she has, in particular, guided hundreds of high school students and their teachers in exploring the intricacies of audiovisual creation as the program director for the “Télémaques” film education program at Savoir au Présent (2017–2019).
In 2019, she took charge of structuring and coordinating the first four years of the Cinémathèque du documentaire network (which grew from 20 to 73 programming and screening organizations across France) and participated in the activities of Images en bibliothèques: professional training for cultural programmers and the national coordination of Documentary Film Month.
Since 2022, she has been supporting filmmakers in the development, writing, production, and editing of their documentary and fiction projects at Saule Productions.
In 2023, she was selected to participate in the EURODOC program, which brings together producers from across Europe for intensive workshops.
