33, parc des Courtillières
De ce côté du monde
Nicolas Stern
1997 - 54 min - Betacam SP - Couleur - France

Parc des Courtillières at Pantin (Seine-Saint-Denis) was built between 1958 and 1962 on ground that had belonged to market gardeners and marshland. On this estate my mother, sister and I came to live in 1959.
The film is a double investigation, a personal search, a dive into the time of my memories and my impressions and an encounter with those who live on this estate today.
I film the places where I spent my childhood – in the building at number 33, in my flat, in my old school, in the park, etc. – in their present situation which is almost unchanged, but in a serious state of disrepair.
The testimonies, loving or conflictual, of the former children of my generation and those of older inhabitants of the generation of my mother alternate with the words of the "newcomers" : those who have arrived from the Maghreb, from Africa, with their own cultures, their own imaginations, bring my memories to the surface while they feed the collective memory.