Nos défaites

Our Defeats
In May and June 2018, Jean-Gabriel Périot collaborated with ten students in a film class at a high school in Ivry-sur-Seine on a project that unites cinema with politics. The students worked both in front of and behind the camera, restaging scenes of strikes, resistance, and labour disputes from films dating from the late 1960s to the late 1970s, including ones by Jean-Luc Godard and Alain Tanner. Nos défaites assembles the results, and adds interviews in which the director queries the students about the scenes they’ve just acted in, about such concepts as “class,” “labour union,” and “political engagement,” about wider social contexts. It’s a simple, yet trenchant setup, affording viewers a glimpse of how a younger generation sees politics and the political cinema of the past. The film also documents the director’s attempts to stir up the students. The conversations vary between encounters in which director and students seem on an equal footing, based on more teacher-like questioning by the never-visible director, and contemplations of revolution in the here and now: the performance of an uprising follows reflection upon the same. Could this lead to one happening for real?
by Jean-Gabriel Périot France 2019 French 94’ Colour & Black/White Documentary form

Crew

Director Jean-Gabriel Périot
Cinematography Amine Berrada
Editing Jean-Gabriel Périot
Sound Design Laure Artaud
Sound Dana Farzanehpour
Producer Frédéric Dubreuil

Produced by

Jean-Gabriel Périot

Born in Bellac, France in 1974. He studied Visual Communication and works as a video artist, cinematographer, editor and director.

Filmography

1999 Parades amoureuses (Loving Flirts); 1 min. 2001 Journal intime (Intimate Diary); 2 min. · Gay ?; 2 min. 2002 21.04.02; 9 min. · Avant j’étais triste (Before I Was Sad); 2 min. 2004 We Are Winning Don’t Forget; 7 min. 2005 Dies Irae; 10 min. · Undo; 10 min. 2006 Under Twilight; 4 min. · Eût-elle été criminelle… (Even If She Had Been a Criminal…); 9 min. 2007 Nijuman no borei (200.000 Fantômes); 10 min. 2008 Entre chiens et loups (Between Dogs and Wolves); 30 min. 2009 L'art délicat de la matraque (The Delicate Art of the Bludgeon); 4 min. 2010 Les barbares (The Barbarians); 5 min. 2011 Regarder les morts (Looking at the Dead); 20 min. 2012 The Devil; 7 min. · Nos jours, absolument, doivent être illuminés (Our Days, Absolutely, Have to Be Enlightened); 22 min. 2013 Le jour a vaincu la nuit (The Day Has Conquered the Night); 28 min. · L’optimisme (Optimism); 15 min. 2014 We Are Become Death; 4 min. · Si jamais nous devons disparaître, ce sera sans inquiétude mais en combattant jusqu’à la fin (If We Ever Have to Disappear, It Will Be Without Disquiet but We Will Fight Until the End); 15 min. 2015 Une jeunesse allemande (A German Youth); 93 min., Panorama 2015 2017 Un autre jour en France (Another Day in France); 1 min. 2018 Natsu no hikari (Lumières d’été / Summer Lights); 83 min. · De la joie dans ce combat (There Is Joy in This Struggle); 22 min. · Song for the Jungle; 16 min. 2019 Nos défaites

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2019