Abstract
« Remake of a summer » was built on the idea to attempt a remake or a retake” of the cult film “Chronicle of a summer” by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin. We intended to play with a new cinematographic method: the remake of documentaries. Still, we wanted to preserve the originality of Rouch’s and Morin’s body of work. We attempted to follow and revisit its methods, aesthetics and locations. These topics have somehow been transposed in the present French society with its new collective issues and the individual question of happiness. Our discussion with our audience is always enriching, our questions are linked to the possible and limits of “cinema vérité” (or “truthful cinema”) in the way Edgar Morin noticed it himself concerning « cinéma vérité » that is a play on words in French, which is linked to the reflexivity and participatory ethnography. We decided to be a part of our movie, to make camera and people equally participate through a direct and dialogical approach. With such an approach, people would take time and would have the power to express themselves in deep intimate words. Seeking for happiness is crossed by contradictory choices that we wanted to emphasize and that we tried to show by our editing choices. Beyond this approach, we tried to capture the political issues of French society where the questions of margin and emancipation are still going through.
Biography
Séverine Enjolras and Magali Bragard are both holders of a DEA in visual anthropology obtained in 2003 in Paris 10 – Nanterre, under the direction of Jean Rouch. In 2009 they co-directed a short documentary film, „Dombes“, on the study and management of a health risk. They are both teachers in documentary cinema, they created and organized in 2007 and 2008 a festival of films in the West Bank. Séverine Enjolras has also directed several documentaries, institutional films and films around citizen consultation workshops. Magali Bragard, in addition to her work of realization, is also a stage and press photographer.