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 provide tools and transmit skills so that young filmmakers could portray their own realities in their own ways - while also nurturing a new generation of documentary filmmakers pursuing a poetic and artistic cinema, not merely a journalistic one.
Serving the subject was always key. It was all about the gaze, the time invested, and the relationship built with the characters, which together form the path to something universal. With the backing of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the original 12-week training was gradually introduced abroad. Many former participants and editors, inspired by this approach to documentary filmmaking, became part of the Varan collective, engaging in new projects and carrying forward the ethos of the workshops. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Severin Blanchet led a workshop in Papua New Guinea and coordinated a collective project culminating in the film Tinpis Run. André Van In, working in South Africa, also led collective efforts that resulted in South African Chronicles followed by My Vote is My Secret.
Each international workshop arose from different initiatives - be it from institutions, filmmakers, or organizations. This is how the Vietnam workshop was initiated by Sylvie Gadmer and myself, Emmanuelle Baude—both editors at the Varan workshops, each with a personal history connected to Vietnam. By the late 1990s, as Vietnam was opening up, it became the right moment to initiate a workshop alongside Vietnamese partners who shared the same enthusiasm. In 2004, the first workshop was held in Hanoi, focused on editing, producing films marked by free expression and the use of direct sound as a narrative tool.
In 2005, Tran Ti Phuong Thao, who had just begun her filmmaking journey, joined as a translator and assistant to André Van In, working with Patrick Genet, Richard Copans, Anne Baudry, and myself. In return, Thao joined the 2006 workshop and, under André Van In’s guidance, directed Rêves d’ouvrières (Workers’ Dreams), a film in which her relationship with the main character reveals, through dialogue, the complexity of a society in transition. This workshop became a long-lasting initiative and has since fostered the emergence of new filmmakers.
Jean Noël Cristiani went on to lead workshops in Romania, Egypt, Serbia, Kenya, and in 2006 in Georgia, from which the film Elektrichka by Temur Mzhavia emerged. That workshop, initiated by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, brought together 12 filmmakers to reflect on the country’s situation in the midst of conflict.
Dusty Night by Mohammad Ali Hazara came out of Severin Blanchet’s final workshop. Blanchet was tragically killed in 2010 during an attack in Kabul. He had been running workshops in Afghanistan since 2006. The resulting films offer insight into a war-torn nation, revealing a reality often unseen in the news—like Dusty Night, which poetically portrays the country’s uncertain future. Since 2017, the Varan workshops have expanded their training program. Daniel Deshays now leads the sound writing workshop, which emphasizes sound as a narrative element in its own right—rather than as mere illustration of the visuals or dialogue.
This approach aligns with the documentary philosophy we advocate. The film Deuxième tournée (Second Tour) exemplifies this narrative sensitivity, revealing the invisible by combining non-synchronous images and sounds into a poetic story. Toward the Sky by Kiri Lluch Dalena, made during the 2013 workshop in the Philippines, follows this same approach. The filmmaker recounts the trauma of a devastating typhoon through the perspective of the children who lived it.
Finally, the 2024 workshop in Uzbekistan, led by David Ghéron Tétriakoff, brought together participants from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan over six weeks. Their films capture the reality of today and the ongoing challenges of maintaining independence.
Emmanuelle Baude
Editor and member of Ateliers Varan since 2005
Paris, May 2025
