NOTOWN, 2016, HD, 16/9, color, 24 min 45 sec
Original French version with English subtitles
Trailer
Extract
Short Synopsis: Images of Detroit, such as camera travellings in abandoned streets and in front of dilapidated buildings, are superimposed by shadows, showing a couple, similar to the Chinese shadow plays. Their dialogues comment between the lines on their stay.
In Europe, it's often said, that America is about 10 years ahead of us. In terms on technology, economy and politically. Under this premise, a vistit in Detroit, the former Motortown and economical Center of the USA, is nearly like visiting your own possible future. May be it's not a coincidence, that Hollywood is producing one dystopian movie after the other at the moment. The ruins in Detroit, with their post-industrial esthetics, divert easily the gaze from the real social problems and causes of the decline of Detroit. The video "NOTOWN" oscillates exactly between the visible and the invisible, from the point of view of "artist tourists." It creates a dialectic relation between the subjective production of images and their questioning at the same time. The shadows and the dialogues lie over the images that have been shot in Detroit and give a different insight into the problems of Detroit, without being didactic. A journey into space and time.
A video by Emmanuelle Bayart and Timo Kirez
With: Anne Delahaye, Nicolas Leresche
Image Detroit: Emmanuelle Bayart
Text and dialogue: Timo Kirez
Editing: Emmanuelle Bayart
Chief operator shadows: Marion Neumann
Make-up: Mia Vranes
Dog: Shankara / Great Anim's canine education
French translation: Maurice Taszman
Sound: Björn Cornelius
Music: Henrry Bonnet
Grading: Lucien Keller - COBALT Films, Brussels
Thanks to : Ericka Alexander / People Mover, Dora Apel, Anne Bratschi / FMAC, Eric Oen Douglas, Delphine and Guillaume François, Brad Horton / U.S. Auto Supply Salvage Scrapyard, AOA éducation canine Genève, Jessica Martin / Great Anim’s, Kinga Osz-Kemp, Gilbert Rapp, Sarah and Lulu, Rosie Sharp and Zelda, Joel Uden, Shelley Varella.
