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MORNING SESSION #4 : MATINÉE DES IDÉES – FILMMAKERS: DOES ART HAVE POLITICAL STAKES?

In collaboration with ACID, ADDOC, SRF and SCAM.

This debate will only be accessible to a French speaking audience.

“Artists, when they happen to be appreciated, are now appreciated on the condition that they do not care about art. We like them to conform to the imagery of the devoted cultural activist, the heated poet, the indignant citizen or the involved animator.”

This observation, made by Olivier Neveux, is addressed to the field of theatre. Is it relevant to the field of cinema? This Matinée des idées, rather than questioning the definition of the “engaged filmmaker”, proposes to examine the possible negotiations between the aesthetic gesture and the militant gesture. The political concern of art for the cinema perhaps demands that we do not allow ourselves to be trapped in an obsession with immediate efficiency, which readily leads us to conclude that “it is better to be directly militant”, or to be swallowed up by the quantitative vision of reception, which is primarily concerned with the insertion of a work in the market.

Cinétracts (1968) © Iskra/Slon

As an artist: how to situate oneself politically? To intervene in the current situation or to detach oneself from it? By the choice of his subject or his materials? Through processes that affirm a viewpoint? By thwarting the expected functions of what one produces?

To claim to be a political cinema is to seek a meeting point between a political ambition and the field of art: the craft of the aesthetic dimension, of formal research?

For example, should we not mourn the mastery of the effects of the work, following the warning formulated by Jacques Rancière: “Emancipation is also knowing that one does not put one’s thoughts into the heads of others, that one does not have to anticipate the effect. ? Does this mean that we should give up aiming for effects?

HOSTED BY
David Faroult (maître de conférence, ENS-Louis Lumière)

WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF FILMMAKERS :
Marina DéakLes Profondeurs (2005), Poursuite (2011), Si on te donne un château, tu le prends ? (2017), Navire Europe (2023) etc. | Adhérente à l’ACID
Manuela FrésilEntrée du Personnel (2011), Le Bon grain de l’ivraie (2018) etc. | Adhérente à l’ADDOC
Nicolas KlotzLa Blessure (2011), Low Life (2011) et L’héroïque lande, la frontière brûle (2017) réalisés avec Élisabeth Perceval etc. | Adhérent à la SRF
Pierre CarlesLa Sociologie est un sport de combat (2001), Fin de concession (2010), Opération Correa, épisodes 1&2 (2015-2016), réalisés avec Nina Faure etc. | Adhérent à la SCAM