Francesca Rosati Freeman
Francesca Rosati Freeman (1948) – Born in Trapani, Sicily, she has lived in Switzerland, France, and New Zealand, and made numerous stays in China. She is the mother of two children and the proud grandmother of a thirteen-year-old girl. Nel corso della sua vita ha esplorato culture e stili di vita alternativi, con un’attenzione particolare alla condizione femminile. Throughout her life, she has pursued the exploration of different cultures and alternative ways of living, with a particular focus on the condition of women. As a teacher and documentary filmmaker, she worked for many years with immigrant women in Geneva – an experience that deeply shaped her human and creative journey and helped compensate for the separation from her homeland and family.
Her encounter with the matriarchal society of the Moso people in Yunnan, China, became the cornerstone of her work. It inspired her books Benvenuti nel paese delle donne, XL Edizioni, 2010, and Sur les rives du Lac Mère, Ed. Tensing, 2015, as well as her documentaries Una società senza mariti, Nu Guo. In the Name of the Mother (co-directed with Pio d’Emilia, that received an award at the Festival International du Cinéma d’Asie, Vesoul, France, in 2015), and Gammu. Montagna Dea Madre. Her work interweaves research and narrative, culminating in her latest book Ritorno al Lago Madre (Return to the Mother Lake), 2025.
Through her writing and films, Francesca Rosati Freeman continues to promote the values of matriarchal cultures as a path toward harmony, freedom, and mutual respect in a world still dominated by patriarchal models.
