by Amélie CABOCEL
2019 - 93 min - HD
[There is also a 52-minute version titled “Michelle and Her Family, a Photograph”]
Coproduction Ana Films, Vià Vosges, RTGE and Mosaïk.
With the participation of the CNC, the Grand Est Region, the Eurométropole de Strasbourg, and Procirep-Angoa.
Image: Gautier Gumpper
Additional images: Amélie Cabocel
Sound: Grégory Pernet, Nicolas Rhode, Vivien Roche, Martin Sadoux, Jérémy Vernerey
Editing: Gautier Gumpper
Sound editing: Martin Sadoux
Mixing: Régis Diebold
Original music: Pascal Doumange
SYNOPSIS
Les Blanches Terres is a deserted hamlet in Lorraine whose charm escapes those who are merely passing through. Michelle, the director’s grandmother, has lived there her whole life, as if “rooted” there. A widow for twenty years, she combats her isolation through nearly daily interactions with her cousins, friends, and a few neighbors.
The director, who is also a photographer, invites Michelle and “the cousins” to be at the heart of her new photographic work. What image should one leave behind at over 80 years old? What can we preserve as a trace of what is fading away? Through their portraits, the film tells the story of a world that has become almost invisible to our eyes.
Awards and selections :
Jury Award - Family Film Festival - Saint-Ouen, France - November 2021
Jury Prize and Audience Award - Aux Écrans du Réel Festival - Le Mans, France - November 2021
Family Film Project - Porto, Portugal - October 2021
Festival du Film de l'Est - Strasbourg, France - October 2021
Tempo Documentary Festival - Stockholm, Sweden - March 2021
DOK Leipzig - Leipzig, Germany - October 2020
THE FILMMAKER
Amélie Cabocel’s specialization in photography and the humanities and social sciences has led her to develop an artistic approach that combines these two fields.
Documentary film, video, sound, and photography allow her to explore issues related to the body and the social body. Her work revolves around a dialectic of the visible and the invisible in the image and, more broadly, on a societal scale.
Her work has been published on several occasions and has been shown at festivals (Les Instants vidéo, Marseille, 2010) and various exhibitions (Maison de la photographie Robert Doisneau, Gentilly, 2016; Synesthésie, Mois de la Photo du Grand Paris, Saint-Denis, 2017; Nuit Blanche, Paris, 2018)
