Gnawa

The doors of the abandoned Raverdy coffee and chicory factory remain closed, just like everything around it. The director – herself a descendant of the Raverdy family (and expecting her first child) – goes in search of the stories behind this sealed-off part of the city. She moves in with her 91-year-old grandmother, who lives over the road. Piece by piece, she is able to reconstruct events leading up to the factory’s closure, using old photos, advertising brochures, myths, language games, conversations with her grandmother and former female factory workers. These memories unfold through different storylines. The factory’s surroundings are explored through a poetic film style, and the history of the nunnery next to the factory is also revealed. This sensitive film is a reflection on the invisible and the forgotten, revolving around women and the changing body.

In musical terminology, the term " study " designates pieces to approach a specific problem : study for arpeggios, for the left-handed etc. The question here is how to merge dancing footage with elements of fiction. What is the right tone, the golden proportion to tell/dance the stories without resorting to techniques of a musical or a ballet ? New ways of telling a story: this is, without a doubt, a critical challenge for dance today. Twenty-one micro fictions by four Cie Michèle Anne De Mey dancers in witch the educational aspect of experimentation soon gives way to the pleasur of joyful poetics: an original blend of tender insolence and srtict elegance.

A film made of objects, faces and texts; of lost cats, of found pictures, cut-outs, recreations; a poetic subversion in diary form, one that breaks the calendar into a novel, driving relentlessly as a journey to the end of the world.

A short film I forgot about. Images are filmed the years ago with the precious help of Messaline Raverdy, Samuel, and the amazing Ramblin" Jack Elliott.

Inspired by Saint Francis of Assisi's Canticle of the Creatures, an inner journey between visible and invisible, enlightened contemplation driven by the changing light of seasons.