Tell us about yourself. How did you become an artist?
I didn't study art but I felt immediately passionate about it when I was visiting a Museum or going to Cinema. Then I felt it was a need to do art and then I became an artist, but I never did art for money reasons..it was incompatible for me.
What was your first job in the art field?
I was performing for a choreographer in the field of contemporary dance work. I wasn't a good dancer but I enjoyed being on stage then…
What makes you want to tell stories? In other words, what are the themes/issues you want to incorporate into your work?
My first storytelling script was coming out in 1 day. I could not stop writing it and I felt very emotional sometimes, crying of joy : it was a need and in a time not expected; When I am writing a story, I can’t control the time…and that is a satisfaction. Mainly the themes are abstract or within a poetic form. It always starts by an obsessive keyword or image. The fact of showing non-normative bodies or talking of LGBTQ+ sexualities is always a very intimate topic, and when you write such content you feel naked too as the storyteller. But if you go beyond the exhibitionism part of it is like a pure breathing, it's releasing yourself. Like screaming very loud on the top of a bridge!
Please tell us about your vision and your method of approaching a new project?
When I write something new I don’t know yet that it will be a new project! It is coming by itself through a process of free writing, or sketching drawings on a white page. Then it's like a puzzle where you are adding keys and opening new doors that are starting to make sense together! it can be a collage of words and suddenly the main idea pops up and there it is.
Who are your filmmaking influencers? What are the films that were influential for you?
John Waters, Bruce LaBruce, Jean Genet, Pasolini, Wong Kar Wai, mainly queer artists and filmmakers. I am in love with “Un champs d’amour” de Jean Genet in Black and white with no dialogues. I love the humor and criticism of society by John Waters in “Multiple Maniacs”. Same for Bruce LaBruce, the humor and his revolutionary approach to pornography at cinema in “Gerontophilia” for example, in “Hustler White”, those are queer manifestos for the Cinema, and I am very happy when I can watch it again.
How do you think the industry is changing? How has COVID affected independent filmmaking/creation?
The industry is moving, and it can be bad as it can move better too! depends on which Cinema you want to watch? For my part I am interested in one kind of cinema, the one of their authors and artists who are taking a risk to do a film without money for instance.
What advice would you give to aspiring artists? What are some of the things they must follow/avoid?
I would say “shoot film stay broke!” whatever you need to express, do it on time, don’t wait for subsidies, do it when it's time! otherwise it can lose its honesty … As well, life is the best school of cinema, you need to be in love to create stories, and you need to understand what suffering is to be a good artist…But create, and do more than you will earn money!
Do you think films/stories can bring about a change in the world?
It is a romantic way to think like that but I guess, it's true if you believe in it. Cinema can change a life…
What do you think people like to watch these days? Has the pandemic changed people's taste?
I don’t know what people are watching the most these days, but I think the pandemic brought them back in front of computer to watch online movies, I sometimes have nostalgia of Cinema room instead of movies online, during the COVID period, so I feel happy we can gather now in these rooms again!
Please tell us about your upcoming projects.
I am now working on a comedy about The End of the World that is missing. It is taking a very experimental form, and it will be my second film with dialogues, which is challenging me. As well my first feature is in pre-production and it's a Queer fiction about Tarantula and fem approach of seeing our queer bodies.
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