Jouer Ponette (autour du film de Jacques Doillon)

Synopsis

In this documentary made almost entirely from material filmed with the video assist on the set of Ponette, Jeanne Crépeau shows how patiently Jacques Doillon and his meticulous, talented team worked with his young charge, from the first disastrous day of shooting up to the triumph in Venice, where four-year-old Victoire Thivisol won the Volpi Cup. In this raw material—rehearsals, repeated takes and footage in between shots—we can discern a meditation about the mystery of acting.

Bio/Filmo

Jeanne Crépeau (Montreal, 1961) is a director, screenwriter and producer who has also worked as director of photography, editor and animator. She explores all kinds of filmmaking formats and genres, including video installation, animation, documentary and fiction, among others. Since 1993, her production company Boxfilm has helped produce and distribute independent films made off the usual circuits. Her solid professional background and working practices are linked to a whole series of leading names in independent filmmaking, including Chantal Akerman, Jean-Claude Lauzon, Francis Mankiewicz, Léa Pool and Jacques Doillon. She was taught the meaning of blues at 16 by her black coworkers, who sang to help make their monotonous work more bearable. And when she was 27 she teamed up with Manon Briand and Benoît Pilon (among others) to set up the Les Films de l’Autre, now one of the leading independent film producers in Quebec.

Screening presented by Joves Programadors Moving Cinema in conversation with Carla Simón.