2016 Story of a Production – Iskra Story of a Production – Iskra
Friday, 26 at 2:30 pm, Salle Cinéma
In 1969 to the microphone of Chris Marker in Les mots ont un sens, François Maspero declared: “A publisher is defined by his catalogue!”
Couldn't we say the same thing about a film producer, and even more so, it seems to us, when we're talking about ISKRA, whose catalogue of more than two hundred films – uniquely documentary – indeed testifies to the choices, values, priorities guiding a team which has relayed these policies over five decades. This is visible as much in the social subjects which are questioned as in the search for specific styles and strategies thought out film by film in close companionship with the produced author-directors.
Since the beginning of the adventure with SLON in 1968 – which provided the framework for the unique experience of the Groupes Medvekine with the fourteen films made by the workers of Besançon and Sochaux – to our most recent productions, a continuing thread is evident. Bernard Benoliel defined it very well in a text now a few years old but still relevant and in which we recognise ourselves more than ever, in spite of and in resistance to the particular difficulties of producing films today:
“Developing a human scale logistical apparatus adapted to the shifting realities of the field, SLON productions – renamed ISKRA in 1974 – always start out from a particular political or social situation, each subject then inventing the most suitable form, that required by its subject. For ISKRA considers aesthetics to be a political issue, film form a necessity and a strength. It is this documented point of view on things that distinguishes the “ISKRA” trademark and leaves an impression in people’s minds.”
Aesthetics as politics, form as a necessity and a strength: Slaughtered, a film by Raphaël Girardot and Vincent Gaullier and the object of this case study, illustrates this formidably.
By explaining our practice, looking through the SLON/ISKRA catalogue, testifying to our different production experiences, we will develop together this line that we defend... firmly!
Viviane Aquilli
In the presence of Viviane Aquilli and Matthieu de Laborde.