les ateliers varan I - what’s real and what’s not

ELEKTRICHKA
Over the course of three ses­sions, Ate­lier Varan presents a selec­tion of films pro­duced as part of the Varan work­shops, cre­at­ed 45 years ago. Above all they reflect a vision of doc­u­men­tary cinema, under two themes: Towards the Dream, and What is Real and What is Not.  The film Le pont Mirabeau by Elie Rajaonarai­son, stem­ming from the very first work­shop in 1980, por­trays a clash of perspectives—through Guil­laume Apollinaire’s poem and the French reality—offering a sharp alert to con­tra­dic­tion. At the time, the Varan work­shops func­tioned as a kind of lab­o­ra­to­ry, where trainees from dif­fer­ent coun­tries came to make films in France. The mentors—around ten at the time—were mostly ini­ti­at­ed by Jean Rouch. Vin­cent and Sev­erin Blanchet, his former assis­tants during uni­ver­si­ty train­ings, along with Elis­a­beth Kap­nist, Patrick Genet, Jean-Paul Beau­viala, Jean-Noël Cris­tiani, and André Van In, passed on their knowl­edge not through theory, but through hands-on learn­ing: by doing, invent­ing, and experimenting.  Just as Jean Rouch led a work­shop in Mozam­bique in 1978 at the request of cul­tur­al attaché Jacques d’Arthuis, the aim of the inter­na­tion­al work­shops was to … read more

DUSTY NIGHT
(NUIT DE POUSSIERE )

Mohammad Ali Hazara
Afghanistan 2011 | 20 Min.

Thu, 29-May-25 02:00 PM
“You suffer as long as you breathe,” shouts a hoarse voice out­side the pic­ture, and then adds with honest irony: ”Dust is our wealth.” The voice belongs to a street … read more

ELEKTRICHKA

Temur Mzhavia
Georgia, South Caucasus 2006 | 21 Min.

Thu, 29-May-25 02:00 PM
Q&A with:
Temur Mzhavia
At 7 o’clock in the morn­ing, the Elek­trich­ka, a wooden-class train, sets off from Tbil­isi (Geor­gia) to Bor­jo­mi, 150 km away. The wind whis­tles through the pain­less win­dows. The train … read more

UNDER THE MIRABEAU BRIDGE
(SOUS LE PONT MARIBEAU )

Elie Rajaonarison
France 1980 | 15 Min. | DCP, EN subs

Thu, 29-May-25 02:00 PM
Q&A with:
Daniel Deshays, Emmanuelle Baude, Jean-Noël Cristiani
Ticket (Under the Mirabeau Bridge / Dusty Night / Elektrichka)
Live-Stream

In Guil­laume Apol­li­naire’s poem, two visions col­lide: the image of France learned in Mada­gas­car and the real­i­ty later expe­ri­enced in the former metrop­o­lis. For a for­eign­er, adapt­ing to French life means over­com­ing count­less dif­fi­cul­ties. For a Mala­gasy, the oblig­a­tory tran­si­tion from oral to writ­ten cul­ture is one of the worst.

Work­shop: Doc­u­men­tary film-making, Paris

Élie Rajaonar­i­son (died 11. 27. 2010) was a poet, uni­ver­si­ty pro­fes­sor and senior civil ser­vant from Mada­gas­car. Élie Rajaonar­i­son is con­sid­ered a pio­neer of modern Mala­gasy poetry. His vol­umes of poetry have earned him inter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion and have been trans­lat­ed into French and Eng­lish. He has also con­tributed to the devel­op­ment of the per­form­ing arts in Madagascar.