Sur le petit pré
Jean-Michel Perez
2003 - 56 min - DVC Pro - Couleur - France

For almost a year Fathi, Marie, Gracieuse, Momo and Reine took me walking with them on the little meadow. Surrounded by houses, this is an abandoned space, without a fence, waste ground with no litter, a shortcut, a door on to the town and the country.
On the paths up to the caves, the promontory on to the sea, or simply a rock just above the housing estates, they tell me about the place where they live, their way of living there, of making it theirs. Meanwhile a social centre is being built at the foot of the hill. The builders cast and erect the walls of a big round house with oval windows, a hut to weave some social fabric.
This film reminds us of what is intimate and common to us, what pre-exists, the place where we grow up outside of a frame, where we take the air, play, smell the wind and the grass, make a house, hide and discover, think, measure and plan, make love, are free, it belongs to us.
And life goes on, around these council flats on the hill above the sea, in the blinding light of the Mediterranean.