In 1997, the committed filmmaker Jean Asselmeyer, armed with his camera, posed the following question at the General Assembly of Documentary Film in Lussas and in Paris: Is it possible today to make a committed creative documentary?, to René Vautier, Thierry Garrel, Jean-Michel Carré, Jean-Marie Barbe, Yves Jeanneau, Alexandre Cornu, Lapilli films, Jean-François Raynaud, Samir Abdallah and many others, not the least of whom.

The Battle of Production

René Vautier, le maquisard à la caméra

The Law of Silence, a final-year documentary by Moïra Chappedelaine-Vautier at Femis, examines the 1963 Amnesty Law and the consequences it had on studies of the Algerian War. It brings together interviews conducted in 2002 with Henri Alleg, editor of the daily newspaper Alger Républicain from 1951 to 1955, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet, historian and essayist. It also features incredible statements from General Massu and lawyers unraveling the various legal defenses of people like Jean-Marie Le Pen. Not only does Moïra have her father, René Vautier, speak, but she also includes footage he himself filmed forty years earlier. A very interesting report, which notably reminds us that the Amnesty is not a pardon but the erasure of the sentence and also of the crime itself.

The Law of Silence

A documentary road movie with René Vautier
 In the aftermath of Algeria's independence, René Vautier, a militant filmmaker, considered "the dad" of Algerian cinema, set up the cine-pops. We recreate with him the device of itinerant projections and we travel the country in ciné-bus (Algiers, Béjaïa, Tizi Ouzou, Tébessa) to hear the voices of the spectators on the political situation, youth and living conditions of men and Of women today.

Algérie Tours Détours

Guided by a letter from an childhood friend, a young man visits places and people from the past marked by history and commitment. He then meets other people throughout the night, looking for ways to act and imagine collectively.

Commune présence

In 1950, in full reconstruction, the workers of Brest went on strike. It will last more than a month and will be bloody. Edouard Mazé, a 26-year-old worker from Brest, will die during the demonstration on April 17, dozens of his comrades will be injured and one of them, Pierre Cauzien, will be amputated five days later. The city is under siege. René Vautier, a 20-year-old filmmaker, goes clandestinely to Brest, at the call of the CGT, to shoot a film on the reasons for anger. The trace of these events is now tenuous and carried by witnesses whose words are gradually dying out. This film proposes to find the traces of these events, to collect the words of the witnesses, to search their personal archives, to exhume the forgotten photograms, to open the official files hitherto protected, to delve into the depths of individual memories to understand. In 1950, a man died... But who still remembers?