From 3 Oct 2018From 03.10.18
To 14 Oct 2018To 14.10.18
Twenty years, already! Twenty years made of cinematic proposals, whether they be different, against the grain, experimental, political, unsettling but always sincere. This anniversary edition will be the opportunity for us to rediscover our own work, to dive into our history, through a selection of films that screened during the very first edition that took place in January 1999, but also through an exhibition of the archives from the following editions, that will be shown at our fellows’ from Re:Voir/The Film Gallery. It will be also the occasion to get together at our anniversary party that will be held at the Shakirail, on Saturday, October 13th – you are all welcome to join and celebrate with us!
Even though the festival has changed its format many times in the past twenty years, for this edition we will follow the previous years’ blueprint, with an international competition including a selection of 42 films from 22 different countries. The selection committee’s choice has been Cornelian, since we received more than 1600 artworks through the call for films.
Besides the international competition, the festival will investigate a specific theme of the year through a series of “focus” screenings. During this edition, we will bring to light different strategies and approaches that experimental cinema develops towards waste, its own and others’: whether it be film, society, human or Earth waste.
It seemed important to us to underline that experimental cinema was born mostly from waste; in fact, since its beginnings, it has been put aside, out of sight from the mainstream production. Experimental filmmakers managed to do well out of this “confined wasteland”: there, they could find and use film scraps, broken and outdated cameras, used materials that were put to good use – thus creating a whole tradition that still continues to these days. Even nowadays, when the general tendency of digital technologies is to polish all the asperities of the image in order to reduce all the possible unwanted faults, number of film directors and artists try to highlight the actual existence of this virtual and digital waste and by turning it into a creative tool.
In a more metaphorical sense, the idea of waste also deals with outcasts and social rejects: we will therefore continue with the reoccurring screening dedicated to “outside the norms” cinema, to quote the expression by Alain Bourbonnais, Jean Dubuffet’s close friend. During this projection will be shown works by brut, amateur, outsider or unaware filmmakers.
One of our aims is to expose the dialectic gymnastics that the concept of waste conveys: we love it as much as we want it to stay away from us; we reuse it and in this way we deny it; and the more it stinks the more we like it.
If the idea of waste touches us deeply, it’s because we feel close to it in the sense that we are ourselves considered in some way as the waste of the film industry. As for this, it’s time to think about our position that is one we have in common with all the margins: shall we remain a joyful piece of waste, acting in the shadow, and thus accepting the risk of decomposition, or shall we enhance ourselves by self-recycling, and thus verging on hygienism?
This year it will also be the occasion to reactivate the screenings dedicated to a younger audience – a practice that has been current at Collectif Jeune Cinéma until ten years ago – where we will show some rare films from our catalogue. And, for the 4th consecutive year, we will have our competition dedicated to the filmmakers under 15. You are all invited to come and discover these kids’ creations, since their films fall in with experimental cinema practices in conscious or involuntary ways.
Collectif Jeune Cinéma team wish you a beautiful edition of the 2018 Paris Festival for Different and Experimental Cinema, which we hope to be rich in discoveries, rediscoveries and gatherings.
26th edition
25ème édition
24ème édition
23rd edition
22nd edition
21st edition
19th edition
18th edition