2010 An history of production An history of production
Produce, they say...
To produce is to play. So let's play a little game.
We know of course that producing is not only playing. Each film is a new adventure. It is a way of finding the optimum solutions to the wishes, desires and passions of the author-directors with whom we work. It is establishing a catalogue which, over the long term, will have a meaning. At least, we have to hope so. Each one of us has our lot of failures, straying, doubts which can be as traumatic as those of the most sensitive film-makers with which we work.
The game we are to play was proposed by the États généraux du film documentaire of Lussas.
We are two production companies, one French, the other Belgian, managed by two authors-directors-producers. Straight away, a rather bizarre affirmation. Are we really "French" when we work with many directors of "foreign" nationality? Are they really Belgian? In fact, all three of us are from the land of cinema. And so, the game is to show two films, one by Cobra Films, the other by Zeugma Films, each one of us commenting, through mutual questioning, the film of the other. That is to say, why did you decide to produce it? In what circumstances was it born? How did you go about it? What contacts, approaches, etc. were useful or useless? How did you manage to allow the author's desire to take form? Once finished, how was the film presented to spectators? In short, what does it mean to produce, starting from two concrete examples.
The game was obviously to choose none of the films we have coproduced – as we come from the same homeland, we have had ten years of experience producing together. The game was also to select two quite recent films which we like and whose production was complex (it is never simple...).
That's it. Come play with us, and may the merry-go-round of production go on.
Michel David, Anne Deligne, Daniel De Valck.
Friday, 26 at 2:30 pm, Room 2