IMAGINARY NOMAD An ode to resilience

A FIRST FILM

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Marseille : a city that is at once so urban and vibrant, yet also full of antagonism. Here, classes and cultures mix with the sun and the ocean, the arts of the streets, the rats and the remains. This urban mediterranean setting serves as a backdrop to the film, which aims to reflect on the stereotypes associated with Roma communities. Having migrated throughout France and western Europe, Roma people are constantly faced with the threat of expulsion from various municipal governments and have to juggle the instability of their living environment and daily discrimination. By meeting one of the families that left Romania hoping to find a better life in Marseille, Nomade Imaginaire raises questions as to what it means to " live in a place/ to live in the margins."

This observational documentary explores the daily life of Maria and Vasile, a couple living in a squat downtown (with their sons, their grandchildren and four other families). In parallel, the documentary also follows a trio of street musicians: Gedu, Nicu, and Radu. The documentary aims the viewer to see the discrepancy that exists between externally assigned identities and reality, as it is experienced by the Roma.

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The camera follows the participants, their gestures and their journeys through the city, each guided by the will to survive/live. The angle of this film is anything but to complacently depict the misery of social life : neither to decry the administrative injustices these individuals have undergone nor to look upon their poverty with pity. Rather, Nomade Imaginaire seeks to demonstrate their resourcefulness and resilience. The individuals and families portrayed in this documentary have built a system of resourcefulness in the city's interstices : from the alternative economies of panhandling and collecting scrap metal to the festive dinners put together without standard access to electricity or water. This is an ode to resilience.

Nomade Imaginaire, is a tour around the city of Marseille and its lesser-known corners, told through the daily experiences of a few individuals, perceived as representatives of a despised ethnic “other”. Confined to the streets, or forced to be nomadic, the Stranger is used as the essential figure to the dichotomous construction of an imaginary “us”. Here, the camera aims to be an intermediate, to show the in-between, to serve as an eye opener to the partitions that too often separates us from each other.

Project history and Presentation of the team

This project has come to life as a result of an encounter with Romeo, one of the organisers of Latcho Divano-Tsigany cultural festival. Having participated in the making of a documentary previously, in which he was one of the protagonists, it was Romeo who encouraged me to tell the stories of some of his relatives. He thought this cinematographic project could be beneficial for his kin as it had been for him. Romeo has also advised me regarding the narrative and relational approach to take and has been very helpful as to the Romani/French translation.

For my part, I was already interested in the situation of the Roma people having migrated to Canada, within the framework of a M.A. project which integrated cinema to sociological research. Once settled in France, I've tried learning more about the topic by getting involved in the community milieu, filming for Latcho Divano for example.

It has now been three months that I have been spending time with Maria, Vasile, Gedu, Nicu, Radu and the other families from the squat. We have gradually established a trusting relationship through exchanges of services, glances, and laughs. The camera is slowly brought into our interactions, in hope that collected sounds and images will pay tribute to these moving encounters.

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The film crew is very minimalist, hence flexible and reactive. I, Mariane Beliveau, a sociology research student also trained in filmmaking and editing, will take care of the camera, the sound recording and the editing. Of course, I will seek advice from other filmmakers and editors throughout the process. The shooting will thus have the advantage to of being very economical and the field more easily accessible.

https://www.facebook.com/mariane.beliveau.1/

NOMADE IMAGINAIRE une brèche dans la ville

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