Un Film Dramatique, dir. Éric Baudelaire, France 2019, 114 min., French with English subtitles
A powerful exercise in collectivity, Un Film Dramatique is co-directed by Franco-American filmmaker Éric Baudelaire alongside a class of 20 middle schoolers. The film takes shape over a period of four years, during which time Baudelaire collaborated with students at the Dora Maar school in Paris’ Saint-Denis commune. Compiling individual and communally-made film footage, Un Film Dramatique features the students’ insights on their young lives as they offer personal reflections and join in shared discussions about politics, identity, cooperation and belonging. The ensemble examines what cinema is, resisting any concepts such as master and student while learning becomes performative, in the making, activity.
The screening is followed by a Q&A with director Éric Baudelaire, hosted by the ICA's Film Programme Coordinator Nicolas Raffin. The recorded event will be made available at the time of screening.