Between September 2020 and June 2021, in the midst of a pandemic crisis, filmmaker Pascal Catheland and choreographer Arthur Perole came to meet seventeen teenagers from the Collège Général Férrié in Draguignan. For several months, they collected the words, facing the camera, of these young people on their dreams for the future but also on their concerns. The story of their dreams, spread over four episodes in the documentary series “Dreams”, was presented this Friday on the sidelines of CanneSeries. The two artists behind the project are now looking for a distributor around this brilliant project.
Why the Var?
Arthur Perole: I am an associate artist at the Draguignan theater and before filming I had already done a dance project with this class for a year, we debated about trance, we discussed a lot, especially around identity. We brought out signs of ill-being, of distress. We’re going to stop dancing, we’re going to talk, atone for things. I had a second year to do and instead of doing a show I called Pascal to do a video project that became a series.
There is a difference between the starting project and the finished product due to confinement. How did you adapt?
Pascal Catheland: The form of the series is an adaptation because we initially wanted to make a film. There was the confinement but above all our first meeting after the confinement with the teenagers, over time, we realized that there was a lot of material and we wanted to make a form in which they could find themselves.
AP: When we found the teenagers, we found ourselves faced with a form of depression, it was an even more difficult period of adolescence, they had dark visions, it played a lot. We then asked ourselves the question as artists, what do we come to do with them? How to reactivate dreams, speech, something brighter.
How to keep a form of distance without being taken emotionally by this word?
PC: In the beginning, we were really taken emotionally with them, and over time the relationship stabilized, it became easier. During the editing, we had to keep a form of distance too. Even for them, being 17 protects them.
AP: It was a collegial speech, we didn’t want to tell the precise story of so and so but a global speech, with all the differences. They don’t have the same role in college, we really wanted to show this palette of adolescence.
What was your first idea?
PC: Survey this generation. We are going to give them the floor, we wanted to know what is going on in their heads, how they are experiencing the pandemic. What are they telling themselves in their heads, what does it say about a generation. We wanted a sample of uncasted teenagers, they are volunteers and they represent the diversity of this age. We wanted it to come from them. What interested us was the collective, the choir, in the four episodes we wanted the 17 to be present.
Were you surprised by the final material?
AP: In November, when we met them together for the first time, we had to be careful because it was like a psychiatric session, it was very precious. We were going to have a quality speech but we had to be responsible for this speech. They understood, at one point, that their word was going to be a platform and that made it possible to establish a real relationship in our exchanges. We filmed 50 hours and we kept one hour, these are editing choices afterwards.
What ties did you have with the parents?
PC: Very few. They trusted us. We framed ourselves legally at the beginning but we never had any exchanges afterwards. We were tense during the screening because the parents were going to discover the words of their children.
AP: To have a good quality of speech, we told the teenagers to free themselves, we had to oust the parents, the college, the teachers. We wanted to know what they thought as an individual.
“Starting from the dream, it makes it possible to create projection, we needed to dream.”
Where will the project be broadcast?
PC: We don’t know yet, being featured at CanneSeries is a crazy thing, it could trigger things for the future. We are looking for a broadcaster.
Why “Dreams”?
PC: It appears to us very quickly, from the first shoot we realize that their projection into the future is blocked, it’s opaque. Starting from the dream, it makes it possible to create projection, we needed to dream.
AP: It’s the intensity of adolescence, everything takes on enormous proportions, you have to put everything into perspective. It was an invigorating project.
How are they doing now looking back?
AP: During the screening in Cannes on Friday, I really felt a form of pride. They were there, they were proud of themselves. They have also evolved a lot, matured since then, things are going very quickly at this age. This little moment, of trust, is a step for them.
PC: The fact that they have the floor is important. At 14, adults don’t come to ask you what you dream about, what you think about. They were considered great.
As in the series, we feel the need to talk.
AP: Season one came out during filming and that convinced us of the goodness of our project. Filming people who give themselves up is precious.
PC: The idea of the white background was there for that, to see the bodies that change, in one year they have metamorphosed physically and mentally.
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