Richard Copans

“You buy a book. You don’t really know why. It lies around, and then one day you open it, almost absentmindedly. And there you are, facing your own innermost secrets.” So begins Stan Neumann’s cinematic adaptation of W.G. Sebald’s award-winning novel, Austerlitz. The vaulted and majestic space of the railway station in Antwerp is where our journey really starts with actor Denis Lavant (Holy Motors) addressing the camera directly, and musing on the curious nature of railway stations. This bravura opening is startling, charming, and like the unnamed narrator of the book, you surrender to the proceedings and perambulate alongside Lavant, as he journeys through the great buildings of Europe, faded and shuttered hotels and grand colonnades with broken windows.

"Bania" is an exploration Russian society through its bath-houses in the city, the countryside, in a monastery, a factory or a prison. The film plays with the boundaries between personal and social space in scenes where naked bodies, marked by tattoos, suffering, labour or war, tell a tale. This film was made by a photographer who, confronted by these naked bodies bathed in steam, invents an unique and timeless plastic world, in the style of classical painting.

Mourning his boyfriend Frédéric's death from an overdose, the French filmmaker David Teboul goes to Siberia on a ritual journey. Out here, under the enormous dome of the skies, he finds the free space to disentangle his thoughts again. And in the villages, both young and old people unexpectedly turn out to be prepared to respond to his invitation to talk about an event that changed their lives. Life, death, love and existence.

No synopsis available yet.

A trip to the seaside campsites, along the coast from Spain to the Camargue, like the other side of society, a cleverly mixed deck of cards. Each time the filmmaker pitches his tent, he gets to know his neighbors. And, as is often the case in these cases, they tell a stranger what they wouldn't tell their relatives. They talk about themselves, about what matters to them.

From 1954 to 1962, during the Algerian War, French citizens provided concrete assistance to the FLN in France: sheltering refugees, forging documents, facilitating border crossings, and transporting funds. Whether committed to the ideals of the Republic or driven by Third Worldist revolutionaries, they sought to build a bridge of friendship between nations. They paid for their commitment with imprisonment and exile. Four veterans of the Jeanson network recall this period. Today, they are no longer seen as traitors or heroes, but as witnesses recounting "their" war... Silent for 30 years, the "Jeanson network" now bears witness to this history.

“You buy a book. You don’t really know why. It lies around, and then one day you open it, almost absentmindedly. And there you are, facing your own innermost secrets.” So begins Stan Neumann’s cinematic adaptation of W.G. Sebald’s award-winning novel, Austerlitz. The vaulted and majestic space of the railway station in Antwerp is where our journey really starts with actor Denis Lavant (Holy Motors) addressing the camera directly, and musing on the curious nature of railway stations. This bravura opening is startling, charming, and like the unnamed narrator of the book, you surrender to the proceedings and perambulate alongside Lavant, as he journeys through the great buildings of Europe, faded and shuttered hotels and grand colonnades with broken windows.

"Bania" is an exploration Russian society through its bath-houses in the city, the countryside, in a monastery, a factory or a prison. The film plays with the boundaries between personal and social space in scenes where naked bodies, marked by tattoos, suffering, labour or war, tell a tale. This film was made by a photographer who, confronted by these naked bodies bathed in steam, invents an unique and timeless plastic world, in the style of classical painting.

Mourning his boyfriend Frédéric's death from an overdose, the French filmmaker David Teboul goes to Siberia on a ritual journey. Out here, under the enormous dome of the skies, he finds the free space to disentangle his thoughts again. And in the villages, both young and old people unexpectedly turn out to be prepared to respond to his invitation to talk about an event that changed their lives. Life, death, love and existence.

No synopsis available yet.

A trip to the seaside campsites, along the coast from Spain to the Camargue, like the other side of society, a cleverly mixed deck of cards. Each time the filmmaker pitches his tent, he gets to know his neighbors. And, as is often the case in these cases, they tell a stranger what they wouldn't tell their relatives. They talk about themselves, about what matters to them.

From 1954 to 1962, during the Algerian War, French citizens provided concrete assistance to the FLN in France: sheltering refugees, forging documents, facilitating border crossings, and transporting funds. Whether committed to the ideals of the Republic or driven by Third Worldist revolutionaries, they sought to build a bridge of friendship between nations. They paid for their commitment with imprisonment and exile. Four veterans of the Jeanson network recall this period. Today, they are no longer seen as traitors or heroes, but as witnesses recounting "their" war... Silent for 30 years, the "Jeanson network" now bears witness to this history.

From 1954 to 1962, during the Algerian War, French citizens provided concrete assistance to the FLN in France: sheltering refugees, forging documents, facilitating border crossings, and transporting funds. Whether committed to the ideals of the Republic or driven by Third Worldist revolutionaries, they sought to build a bridge of friendship between nations. They paid for their commitment with imprisonment and exile. Four veterans of the Jeanson network recall this period. Today, they are no longer seen as traitors or heroes, but as witnesses recounting "their" war... Silent for 30 years, the "Jeanson network" now bears witness to this history.

One hundred and twenty years of film history in a warehouse in Paris. In the reserves of the French Cinematheque, where thousands of cameras and projectors are sleeping on the shelves. Thousands of stationary machinery, we dream of getting back to work as a great machine back in time. To tell their story, the material history of cinema.

On Good Friday in Burzet, a small town in Ardeche, the locals gather to remember Jesus's Crucifixion through solemn pageantry. Between 1980 and 2003, Courant filmed this community's annual reenactment of the Via Crucis 24 times.

An account of the life and work of the influential Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), an iconic figure and a godless demigod who dared to enter the darkest depths of the human mind; through his correspondence and his own voice, and that of his family and friends.

Resorting to the images that make up three quarters of the last century, Jean-Louis Comolli chose films that crossed his path fifty years ago, discovering his own history of cinema, and particularly the documentary cinema. Visual score orchestrated by a voice off (his) which lists topics that are important to him - the place of the viewer, the fiction in the documentary, the impact of technical progress on the artistic field ... -, the film weaves unpredictable wires between the excerpts .

18th century. Anne, grown up, has to "change her clothes" because of her attraction to women. Now a man, he marries and has a great love affair with his new wife, until his past catches up with him. The shocking true story of Anne Grandjean, born intersex, and their resounding trial, which still questions all our certainties today.

A filmmaker, armed with a small digital camera, discovers a city through a handful of characters acting as guides. He entrusts the task of narrating the city entirely to its own inhabitants. Whether these guides are famous or anonymous matters less than their unique talent for making their surroundings feel less foreign to us. Thanks to their intersecting paths, the city’s singular identity gradually emerges from this collage of subjective sequences.

A documentary about the French writer Jean Genet and his relations with the Palestinian revolution. One day after the September 1982 massacre at the refugee camp of Shatila in Beirut, Genet visits the camp. Suffering from throat cancer and having written nothing in years, Genet begins to write on the threshold of his death about this disturbing new experience. It leads to his last book, entitled “Un captif amoureux” in which Genet reflects on the Palestinian revolution, its defeat, and the loss of one’s homeland. In this film a young French woman of Algerian origin who is reading the book returns to the landscapes of the Palestinian resistance and the refugee camps full of exiles, in search of Genet.

A documentary following 12-year-old Paul and his brother Germain during a transformative summer in rural France. The film explores the loss of innocence as Paul confronts the harsh financial and physical realities of his family's farming livelihood, highlighting the father-son bond and an uncertain future.

During the summer of the year 1610 one of the first telescopes made by Galileo ends up in the hands of Jean Kepler in Prague who at the time was the astronomer of Emperor Rudolp II. Kepler observes the night-sky as nobody has seen it before him. His observation platform becomes the meeting place of Prague's imperial court. In this entourage Kepler separates science from superstition, freedom from intolerance.

A documentary film by Canadian Director Debra Kellner, produced by Frank Giustra, Serge Lalou, and Richard Copans. Inside My Heart chronicles the plight of three refugee families fleeing their war torn countries over a period of nearly 3 years. Despite having lost everything and their harrowing stories about the atrocities of war, each family continues their fight to stay alive. Unable to return to their countries without the risk of being killed, today they are forced to live with the consequences of their broken dreams.

The final film from expatriate American filmmaker Robert Kramer, who died in France in 1999. Kramer and collaborators tell the somber life story of Ben. After leaving his homeland as a youth, he is greeted in France by menial jobs in industry. In time, he opens a fruit market, finds a wife, fathers a child, and has it all come crashing down when he learns his mother is in danger back home. Upon his return to France, he finds his life in ruin.

Norman Mailer frankly discusses American culture, politics, literature, and his own tumultuous life.

A realist dramedy about dedicated social workers who devote their long shifts to helping pregnant women.

An amateur choir in the 13th arrondissement in Paris. Once a week, 30 children, 20 teenagers and 50 adults meet to rehearse and sing together under the direction of Claire Marchand, choir director. There are moments of joy, discouragement, shared pleasure and music. From the first auditions to the final concert, the film listens and watches this community at work.

No synopsis available yet.

An exclusive tour of the new Department of Islamic Art at the Louvre. A fascinating journey to the heart of a culture that has constantly transcended borders. Some 18,000 pieces, more than a thousand years of history spanning a territory from Spain to India: beads, ceramic tiles, architectural elements, carpets, furniture, and a Mamluk porch. How to present this exceptional collection, a testament to a rich and complex civilization that spoke not only Arabic, but also Turkish, Farsi, and Hindi? A few months before its opening to the public on September 22, 2012, Richard Copans followed the creation of the Louvre's new, eighth department dedicated to Islamic art.

An exclusive tour of the new Department of Islamic Art at the Louvre. A fascinating journey to the heart of a culture that has constantly transcended borders. Some 18,000 pieces, more than a thousand years of history spanning a territory from Spain to India: beads, ceramic tiles, architectural elements, carpets, furniture, and a Mamluk porch. How to present this exceptional collection, a testament to a rich and complex civilization that spoke not only Arabic, but also Turkish, Farsi, and Hindi? A few months before its opening to the public on September 22, 2012, Richard Copans followed the creation of the Louvre's new, eighth department dedicated to Islamic art.

Famous educator Fernand Deligny tries to find ways to communicate beyond language with troubled and autistic children in his care.

Norman Mailer profiles life in America since the Second World War. Farewell to the Fifties. Mailer fought for his country in the Second World War- an experience that inspired his novel The Naked and the Dead. But, disappointed by post-war America, he grew to despise the fifties.

“I talk about my 20 years of work with the filmmaker Robert Kramer, who died in 1999. It is an account of the gestures and practices of this filmmaker. A way of recalling the central place he attributed to experience to better circumvent the pitfalls of the scenario. It is also the story of a friendship that transformed me. » (Richard Copans)

“I talk about my 20 years of work with the filmmaker Robert Kramer, who died in 1999. It is an account of the gestures and practices of this filmmaker. A way of recalling the central place he attributed to experience to better circumvent the pitfalls of the scenario. It is also the story of a friendship that transformed me. » (Richard Copans)

Hervé Le Roux discovered a short film about a strike in a battery factory. Now he's looking for one of the workers seen in this film: a young woman who is very, very angry.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

A small company valiantly struggles to survive under the respectful yet probing camera of Claire Simon in “At All Costs.” As the docu opens, founder and manager Jihad is off to see his banker. The lack of ready cash to pay his loyal employees, wholesale produce providers and a whole range of other creditors, including the tax-gobbling French government, is omnipresent. From a staff of 14, Jihad is down to three cooks, one delivery driver and a secretary in less than six months. The good-natured pluck of the remaining employees is at the heart of the film. Subterfuges for putting up a brave united front include scheduling food orders from a coin-operated pay phone when the office phone is cut off for nonpayment.

Moullet explores the causes and consequences of cases of mental disorders that were especially numerous in the Southern Alps.

Located on the île de la Cité, in the middle of the Seine, the Paris Law Court looks like an impenetrable fortress. Like Kafka’s castle, it guards its secrets well. It is the place of power. The filmmaker, who worked there for several years as a crime reporter, is extremely familiar with its labyrinthine spaces, its practices, its ceremonies. She comes back to it now, while the Courthouse, such as she knows it, is about to disappear: its relocation is planned in 2017. So, she explores it, camera in hand, on the traces of her experience.

Director Richard Copans sets out to find his origins. In search of family ties, he meets a laborer, a Jewish poet's son, a violinist, a genealogist, a descendant of slaves, several cousins and three jazz musicians, whose music will never leave him.

A documentary about Che Guevara in Bolivia, based upon his journal listing daily agendas

Nowadays, supermarkets are being built where cinemas and churches used to be. Logical evolution as consumerism is the religion of the 20th century: supermarkets are the cathedrals of the future.

Elise moves like a dancer, very slowly, refusing a treatment whose side effects she fears, along with the lectures of her doctors. The camera works in harmony with her rhythm, with the movement of her thought, accompanying and sustaining throughout the film the permanent reinvention of her way of being in the world and of facing illness.

Cédric is a child like millions of others. The only difference is that the little boy is seriously ill and must spend six months in a hospital. Fortunately, the medical staff are well aware that Cédric, like other kids named Steve or Dolores, must - above all else - live his child's life.

No synopsis available yet.