Rewind & Play

Forum 2022

December 1969, Thelonious Monk in Paris. Before his evening concert, he records a programme for French television.
The rushes show a Thelonious Monk who is in the grip of the violent factory of stereotypes from which he tries to escape.
The film becomes the crossing of this great artist, who would like to exist only for his music. And the portrait in hollow of a media machine as ridiculous as it is revolting.
Here is the machine in action. Deconstructing these rushes as phantasms. To see the factory of caricatures at work. Deaf, smiling, ambiguous, admiring and sickening. To hold the microphone without listening, to marvel without seeing.
Trying to overturn the point of view.
Here is Thelonious going through the ordeal, at work, as if he had landed on a strange planet, where a portrait is being made that he cannot do anything about. Tired by the years spent undergoing this painful exercise.
Fortunately, he plays, and in doing so, he makes more than anything else be said.
“It brings tears to my eyes when I see the shit that my father was going through” T.S Monk Jr.

by Alain Gomis
with Thelonious Monk France / Germany 2022 French, English 65’ Colour Documentary form

With

Thelonious Monk

Crew

Director	Alain Gomis
Editing	Alain Gomis
Sound	Matthieu Deniau
Producers	Anouk Khélifa, Arnaud Dommerc
Co-Production	INA Bry-sur-Marne, Frankreich
In Cooperation with	ARTE France – La Lucarne Straßburg, Frankreich Les Films du Worso Paris, Frankreich Schortcut Films Beirut, Libanon Die Gesellschaft DGS Köln, Deutschland Studio Orlando Paris, Frankreich

Produced by

Sphere Films

Andolfi

http://www.andolfi.fr http://www.andolfi.fr

Photos

Alain Gomis

Born in 1972 in Paris, France. He studied art history and film. After making videos and short films, his first feature film L’afrance (2002) won the Silver Leopard at Locarno. His last film Félicité was shown at the Competition section of the 2017 Berlinale.

Filmography

1996 Caramels et chocolats; 12 min. 1998 Tout le monde peut se tromper; 8 min. 1999 Tourbillons (Whirlwinds); 13 min. 2002 L’afrance (As a Man); 90 min. 2003 Petite lumière (Little Light); 15 min. 2006 Ahmed; 15 min. 2008 Andalucia; 90 min. 2012 Aujourd'hui (Today); 86 min. 2017 Félicité; 129 min. 2022 Rewind & Play; 65 min.

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2022