Archives: Pitchs

Short synopsis 

Sébastien Wohlhauser, a passionate Swiss botanist, explores the relationship between humans and plants in Madagascar. This film unveils an exceptional flora, Malagasy plant traditions, and the threats to this heritage: deforestation and looting. The practices related to plants become a crucial political issue for the country’s future.

Statement of intent

I met Sébastien fifteen years ago under unfortunate circumstances. From this tragic event, a long and strong friendship was born. Both of us speak Malagasy, and we have both started families in Madagascar. But what has always mattered most to us is sharing, exchanging, and integrating into this country, trying to help it in our respective fields.

I followed Sébastien on his missions with my camera to witness his commitment. Through Sébastien, I will create an indirect portrait while he teaches us about plants and what they represent for the Malagasy, who also use them for healing. This film aims to highlight the link between nature and the population while addressing the issues of overexploitation of plants on an island that has no fuel resources.

How can we anticipate? How can we develop resources? How do we manage natural stocks to prevent them from disappearing? Sébastien points out the main flaws in the exploitation of nature using interactive maps that provide evidence of the disappearance of the baobab forest, in particular. But who is responsible? The individuals or industrial exploitation? What rules need to be respected?

Short synopsis

In Madagascar, in 1977, two young mixed-race sisters were separated by a repatriation policy implemented by France and Madagascar. Since then, they have never seen each other again. Forty years later, I decide to trace the steps of this buried past by accompanying the promised reunion between my mother and my aunt on the island.

Statement of intent

ZAFY PETITE FILLE DE is a family investigation that tells the story of my mother’s return to Madagascar and her reunion with her sister. This journey becomes an opportunity for me to understand the reasons behind their separation. Why had they never seen each other again, despite their daily phone conversations for 40 years? My family story then plunges us into a more collective memory, that of the particular fate of mixed-race children in Madagascar after independence. Through images from the present and archival footage from the past, the film explores themes of transmission, memory, and exile for two generations of Malagasy women.

Short synopsis

Through the stories of these three women, we see the dedication of an organization called POWA, which provides support and services to survivors who feel isolated and don’t know where to turn.

Statement of intent

A woman recently stated on Twitter that abuse towards women benefits all men, because even when they don’t personally commit it, it allows women to stay in fear and under control. Stories like this, where survivors speak out and an army of women from all races come to their aid, are important. They show us that women will not remain in fear and control. At the top of Fezekile’s coffin was a banner from the One in Nine campaign, with the words ‘SOLIDARITY WITH THOSE WHO SPEAK,’ and that’s what this film is about: solidarity with those who speak.

Short synopsis 

Serge, a forty-year-old man from Réunion who has been sterilized, is confronted by a child who claims to be his son. This “nonexistent son” embodies the societal pressures surrounding fatherhood. Through dialogues, memories, and encounters, Serge delves into his rejection of parenthood, the weight of the colonial past, and the struggles between individual freedom and societal expectations.

Statement of intent

Before my vasectomy in 2014, I was questioned about my refusal to have children. After the procedure, the misunderstanding evolved: it became a loss of masculinity for some men, and a feminist hero for certain women. However, this choice was neither social nor political, but personal. Through the sudden appearance of my imaginary child, I question my motivations, reveal my contradictions, my traumas, and my relationship with my body. As the exchanges unfold, I revisit my blind spots and invite, through a racial and gendered lens, a collective introspection.

Short synopsis 

Ly, a professional farmer and amateur speaker, has never left Antananarivo, but the day has come to take one of the planes he sees flying above him. With his eldest daughter and his filmmaker friend, he travels to Mauritius and Réunion to find a shortcut in the face of the climate emergency, then returns to look for the path that could change his life.

Statement of intent

It’s the story of a father and his daughter, farmers in Antananarivo. The father is a good student of the Ministry of Agriculture and chemicals, while his daughter was profoundly influenced at a young age by a visit to an ecological village. Their filmmaker friend takes them to Mauritius and Réunion to discover a path that can be taken diagonally, like crabs—a counter-model to the system they are victims of. Back in Madagascar, worn down by a series of tragedies, will they take the detour suggested by their friend?

A film with a quirky, imaginative tone, enhanced by animation and puppet sequences, and the ironic voiceover of Claudia Tagbo.