People Pebble
Jivko Darakchiev, Perrine Gamot
2017 - 18 min - Film 16 mm - Noir & Blanc - France

A grainy hammer smashes down. A teenage skier whirls by and an old man is toppled by a wave. Black pyramids exchange roles with white cliffs. Natural or almost, these unstable features are a force to be protected, preserved, or otherwise played with. People Pebble examines the manmade coal heaps (terrils) of northern France and the eroding chalk cliffs of south east England and people’s interaction with them. These landscapes are a defining feature of a territory’s collective memory and modern existence. They are a constant reminder to the local populations of the passing of time, a sort of aging mirror. These particular environments are approached here as a visual – and auditory – playground. In the absence of color, lines and textures remain, dissolving the confines between populations, space, and time. Be it the transformation of a once prosperous mining industry or a house tumbling off the edge of a cliff, the inertia of daily life reigns over all. Human actions are put into teetering balance with nature’s own infallible cycles and inevitable impermanence. The film unfolds as a ballad out of sync, but in tune. If the film’s genre is a voluntary blur, the piece itself is all about contrast. Dark and bright, tones of grey, various lines drawn by the sea, traced by the shore, hills sketched out by a human hand, and clouds folding up into a dreamscape.