LA FUGA DEI CERVELLI, 5min., France
Directed by Mathieu Mondoulet, Thibaut Eiferman
We all walk according to who we are socially. The body is a receptacle for everything we have experienced. Our identities are boxes filled with ideas imposed upon us according to the norms of the world we live in. Since childhood, we are trained in a way that dictates who we will be and perhaps takes away the awareness of choosing or the freedom to choose ourselves.

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

I’ve known Thibaut Eiferman for four years. He’s actually one of my dance
teachers in Paris. We worked together on our first project with former director’s Benjamin Hoffman, "A Hard Day’s Night", during the first pandemic. It was a really nice experience but frustrating too from a dance point of view! As a great fan of his work, I always wanted to work again with him. Thibaut is a choreographer too and he has an amazing piece called HHH (Hand, Heart, Head). His desire was to make a short film on this topic and I jumped at the chance. The choreography already existed so we found a relationship and a way for the camera to exist with the movement, explore it and form a duet between dance and the camera.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

I would say we worked with Thibaut a couple of weeks in prep, and we shot the entire film in two days near Paris in a huge warehouse and in Grenoble suburb .

The editing process with the very talented Florian Ronget took four days, our music composer Varieras expanded one of his track for the short film at the same time.

The first part of the film in the white box is very much things that already existed that were just extended for the film. Then Thibaut and Chiara created actual choreography for the outside without thinking so much about frontality but imagining the camera going all around us. The fact we didn’t have to worry about the frontal took off a lot of the pressure. And then when we were actually filming. we also decided, because it was almost like a ritual, since there wasn’t an audience or any dialogue, that we needed to improvise being outside and being in the moment. We didn’t just copy things that already existed but gave some room during the day to how the situation made us feel. I think we got some of the greatest footage from the present moment, which is something a bit more difficult to capture in a fixed setting.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?

Three? HHH (Hand, Heart, Head)

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

We made everything by ourselves with a tiny crew, a couple of friends and a free location. We shot only with natural light in Grenoble and I think the fact that the light itself is invisible adds poetry to our story , because we didn’t have the budget to stay for more than one day on set.

But the biggest one is always to capture the movement, and transcribe it with a camera : so easy to miss the essence, the meaning of the choreography, and really hard to write it. From my point of view the movement has to be in a dance film the one and only storyteller.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

It’s always really interesting! I love to discover audience’s feelings like most of the filmmakers I guess. But believe it or not chating with film viewers about their perceptions becomes nowadays more and more rare! Please use words and forget Emojis for a moment!

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?

Since I am frustrating sometimes with my previous works as a Dop, I really want to give something more personal in my work and control the entire process of it!

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?

Probably Terence Malick’s movies and « Pina » from Wim Wenders

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?

Audience feedbacks is really awesome, as a great fan of behind the scene process it could be interesting to discover more about film makers world, their inspirations…

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?

Really efficient, FilmFreeway is a key platform for any filmmaker!

10. What is your favorite meal?

Japanese food

11. What is next for you? A new film?

A new dance short film in Morocco with Thibaut Eiferman as a choreographer and an amazing dancer Grace Lyell. But we have to find the money for this project! Any help, advices will be precious;)

Different commercials projects too, and a documentary for french television about Haïti.