The fourth edition of Lab Doc, the documentary writing residency of Meditalents, will take place in 3 sessions of 5 days to be spread over a period of about 6 months from May 2023 at the Convent of Compassion in the 12th arrondissement of Marseille.the 1st session took place from May 8 to 12, 2023.
Claire Simon is The Godmother of this fourth edition of Lab Doc.
"Jean Christophe proposed me to sponsor the fourth edition of the Lab Doc and I am honored, I hope to be up to it... It is not won, I know... I wish you all courage, perseverance and also to sleep well, laugh a lot and not to take your project too tragically. I always found it easier to have good ideas than to make good films. So writing a project is like dreaming and convincing yourself at the same time that this dream is great, unique, and doing a great tap dance number with people who don't like dancing and seem a bit uptight, even sinister... Good luck!!!!"
Sophie had to flee her native Egypt forever in 1956, in the context of the Suez Crisis. She never forgot her. Woman-rabbi and Arab immigrant, brilliant mathematician and housewife, she will have been crossed by her time while displaying a candid strength which questions me - between the passivity of the victims and the suspension of the wise. In a first-person film-essay, mixing archive images, family films and animated objects of memory, I trace the story of this particular story - that of my grandmother - against the backdrop of the great history and the political and identity questions that it raises in me today. Between Paris and Cairo, between present and past, the fragmentary portrait of a complex woman emerges...
Il Grande Buco" is a creative documentary which, starting from the personal history of the author, will open up to a collective and generational dimension. Interweaving the use of images from private and historical archives with images shot in present time, the film traces a subjective journey within left-wing social movements in Italy, from the 60s until today. The hole between the two rooms of the new house where the two authors live, is the point from which all their thoughts.The choice of having or not having a child becomes the pretext to represent the disorientation of an entire generation (thirty-year-olds today) regarding the future.
The telephone call, initially being a tender and human act, has been taken over by the consumer society in call centers whose aim is to “sell” political opinions, commercial offers, products, and hope. This film uses the call center as a writing process and is guided by chance, generosity, the need to speak. A call center is carrying out a psychological survey on happiness among Tunisians. The film is the result of the investigation.
In devastated Lebanon, Munir, Jamil and the other bathers seem indifferent to the crisis. They sunbathe indolently, a hookah in the corner of their mouth on the last public beach in Beirut, which looks like an island of freedom. There, all the social classes and all the religious communities of this small, fragmented country meet. Imams, poets, Hezbollah supporters, alcoholics, singers, intellectuals and Syrian refugees collide their destinies in an odyssey of oiled bodies. A fragile coexistence threatened by the collapse of Lebanon.
In a Tunisia divided in two politically, between Islamists and progressives, five young women aged 28 to 38 share a modest roommate in a residential building. Coming to work in the largest city in the country, far from their family and disapproving looks, the path to freedom is punctuated by trials. Pointed out by conservatives who consider them to be girls of easy virtue, they face a rejection fueled by tough prejudices. Nevertheless, the small group of women supports and supports each other. They even welcome a new roommate: a white chihuahua, who carefully observes the lives of the residents of the house.
What does it mean to be a woman artist today? With her camera and her gaze, an Algerian photographer explores her place in the art world. How do her photographs translate the way she sees the world? How can photography be used to immortalize the moment and highlight often ignored aspects of society?
Kahina Benakli, living in Paris, trained actress, in her thirties, discovered, post-confinement, a passion for English boxing. It was while visiting her family in the South of France that she learned that four of her grandfather's brothers were great boxers, champions in the 1950s. She then decided to embark on a quest to revive her sacred great-uncles. A journey between history and memories, between France and Morocco.
They recently got out of prison. Cyrille Canetti, psychiatrist, after having practiced there for 25 years. His patients after having served their sentence. Month after month, Cyrille now receives them in the privacy of his new office at the hospital. Broken by incarceration, these men gradually try to regain control of their lives. He gradually strives to get rid of a prison world that still sticks to his skin.
Moroccan director, screenwriter and producer of documentary and fiction films. She will accompany the winners throughout the second edition of Lab Doc. Born in Casablanca, Morocco, in 1970, Leïla KILANI studied economics in Paris, obtaining a DEA in History and Civilization of the Mediterranean before preparing a thesis at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. Leïla Kilani has always dreamed of being a clown. Today, she lives between Paris and Tangier.
A freelance journalist since 1997, she turned to documentaries in 1999, with a number of highly acclaimed films: "Tanger, le rêve des brûleurs", 2002, about would-be immigrants to Europe, "Zad Moultaka, passages", 2002, "D'ici et d'ailleurs", a documentary on industrial memory in France, and "Nos lieux interdits" (2008). She then directed "Sur la planche" (2011), her 1st feature-length fiction film, which was selected for the Directors' Fortnight at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and at over 80 festivals. She is currently working on finishing her second feature film: Indivisions.
Shu Aiello lives in Marseille. She alternates between director and production manager. She has worked alongside directors as diverse as Jean Louis Comolli, Yossif Pasternak, Yvan Lemoine, Yves Anchar, Jean Yves Collet... As a director, she has written and directed some twenty documentaries for television, many of them devoted to questions of identity and society raised by the colonial history of France and its overseas territories. She has also directed a number of children's fiction series and reports for channel 5.
Claire Simon is a British-born filmmaker known for her work in both fiction and documentary. She started as a self-taught filmmaker in the late 1970s and later discovered the power of direct cinema at the Varan Workshops. Her notable films include "LA POLICE," a short film awarded at the Belfort Festival, and "COUTE QUE COUTE," a documentary chronicling the downfall of a small food company. In 1997, she directed her first feature film, "SINON, OUI," based on a true story. Her films often blur the line between documentary and fiction, such as "LES BUREAUX DE DIEU" and "GARE DU NORD." She is known for capturing authentic stories and exploring the human experience.
Philippe Pujol grew up in Marseille, where his parents settled in 1977. He obtained a degree in biology, became a computer engineer, and later pursued a master's degree in scientific journalism from the Marseille School of Journalism and Communication. This led him to a local journalist internship at La Marseillaise newspaper in 2003. The following year, he accepted a position in the crime section.
In 2014, Philippe Pujol was awarded the 76th Albert-Londres Prize for his series of articles titled "Quartiers shit" about the northern neighborhoods of Marseille. The same year, he left La Marseillaise due to the newspaper's bankruptcy and subsequent economic layoffs.
In 2017, he published the book "Mon cousin le fasciste" (My Fascist Cousin), dedicated to his right-wing extremist cousin, Yvan Benedetti.
He is a member of the editorial committee of Disclose, an investigative journalism organization.
Philippe Pujol currently lives and works in Marseille.
