“A film based on real events and made up of videos of real events”: the contract is explicit, it is a question of documenting. In reality, the affair is more ample, and more generous, because better than a statement, it is about giving voice — or image, and sound — to the interested parties. Abandoning the weighty mantle of auteur to become editor, and handing over the eye and the ear to the invisible ones, is the project of the Indian collective CAMP. Indeed, the material gleaned is the result of an exchange engaged in since 2009 with sailors who criss-cross the Arabian Sea from the Gulf of Kutch between India and Pakistan (whence they mostly originate) to the Persian Gulf and back. It is a long-term, large-scale project. Shot on a mobile phone, embellished with cheerful music deliberately chosen by these improvised directors, and destined to be addressed to their loved ones, what do these video-letters show us? Something spectacular, but to be distinguished from what is sold as that. On big wooden boats, which could be straight out of a costume drama, the adventure is that of the daily life of a “sea worker”. Here you will encounter a school of dolphins, other equally elegant craft, but in the midst of fastidious tasks to be accomplished, of leisure time too (making a miniature boat!), in the midst of oneself (many faces give news of their permanence without assurance), in the midst of little as well. [Jean-Pierre Rehm & Nicolas Féodoroff]
DAFilms.com is powered by Doc Alliance, a creative partnership of 7 key European documentary film festivals. Our aim is to advance the documentary genre, support its diversity and promote quality creative documentary films.