ISSUE #15 – Net found footage
Introduction
In 2019, the Cinema Department launched its first workshop around images found on the Internet and social media (Instagram, TikTok, etc.) under the impetus of the director and teacher Maryam Goormaghtigh. The theme was “Apocalypses”. In this workshop devoted to editing, the Cinema Department considered the status of images and the strength of both the narrative and the voice-over. In 2020, artists and directors Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel – whose films explore a contemporary youth disillusioned with reality and overwhelmed by virtual images – were invited to give a new workshop on the notion of “care”, with the participation of artist and musician Christelle Oyiri (Crystallmess). They will return in 2021 for a workshop on “portraiture”, with the participation of the film director Guillaume Lillo.
Several of the films made during these workshops were selected in national and international festivals, including the Locarno Film Festival, the Int. Kurzfilmatge Winterhur, the Journées de Soleure, the GIFF, the Festival Côté Court (FR), IndieLisboa (PT), and the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma in Montreal (CA).
This short focus starts off with a text by the filmmaker, critic and lecturer at the HEAD Cinema Department, Jean-Sébastien Chauvin. In it, Chauvin explores various ways of creating a narrative with images found on the Internet. Three films from the 2021 and 2022 workshops are presented. Finally, an interview with the English filmmaker Louis Henderson, also a lecturer at the HEAD, looks at the uses of found images in his decolonial practice.
Cover image: screenshot from All that Solid, Louis Henderson, 2014