Gabriel Gonzalez

About the return of the royal treasures of Abomey in Benin, snatched away by colonial plunder, to a country that has had to build itself up and come to terms with their absence.

Three characters in search of poetic and liberating breaches in a gradually authoritarian Paris, on the verge of implosion. Each in their own way, crafts a situation, where, alternately, a sense of lightness can be found, suffocated screams can uprise and reality be distorted into new horizons.

In the shadow of a colonial past and a neo-capitalist present, Inti, Jai and Pauline are searching for their place in a world that was not made for them. As they roam the neighbourhood looking for somewhere to settle, they question their parents about faith, spirituality, roots and their experiences of migration. They decide to occupy an empty bank building in order to fill it with their memories, dreams and role play. A portrait of our time that oscillates between documentary, performance art and surrealism.

On the eve of a film shoot, Kacey, a 22 year old actor, tests positive for Covid, his role and involvement in the project now in jeopardy. Forced to quarantine in his hotel room and facing solitude and boredom, Kacey takes it upon himself to mislead his co-star, a beautiful and talented actress, into joining him.

Dorothy’s a film director and a bit of a loser. One night, after a few beers, she lets loose on her script when a call from her producer kills her buzz: enough with the queer comedies, it’s time to start making mainstream films. To avoid sinking to the deepest depths of despair, Dorothy seeks comfort in her favorite TV show "Romy the Vampire Slayer". Unfortunately, her own demons show up.

Made during confinement, "In My Room" plunges us into the poignant story of a woman at the twilight of her life, through recordings of the director's deceased grandmother. Living rooms become stages where life is performed. Windows become portals to the lives of others.

My family have begun to forget their Egyptian roots and, on asking my grandmother Malo to recount the first part of her life in Cairo, I am confronted by the memories of an exiled Arabic woman, lost in a troubled sea of memories, soon to be erased by the passage of time. I start a tour to trace her steps and understand who she is, and therefore who we are. An Egypt appears where her past, my imaginings and the present Heliopolis mix together as night falls.

In Georgia, two stranded Nigerians, Obinna and Afame, navigate the sleeping city of Tbilisi after a long night out. However, as day breaks the true colors of their ambiguous affection begin to show. In this way, they find solace despite their hostile environment.

After a long period of isolation, Antonin rediscovers the world in a bird shelter where, rocked by the noise of planes, troubled souls are saved just as much as the birds.

It's the first time Adrien is entering a homosexual sauna. In the space of one night, he discovers this microcosm where the comic aspect of the individual tragedies encounters the passing of time and where hope mingles with melancholy.

In the Parisian suburbs, a group of adolescents wander, looking for a rave party. The city’s peripheral architecture goes by like the setting of a retro futuristic adventure gone wrong; the governmental utopia of the housing estates, the laminated dream of the Euro Disney Park, the playgrounds and sports areas now used as spaces for getting high. The Parisian suburbs are thus revealed like the theatre of a failed political project, which has only intensified the differences between the deprived neighbourhoods and the city centre. However, the youth filmed by Manon Vila is not defeated.

In the industrial city of Kawasaki, on the corner of the street where my grandparents used to live, bettors of keirin — a cycling race developed in post-war — gather in a tiny bar busy drinking, chatting and gambling at the velodrome nearby. Most are old men who struggle to make a living for themselves; most have lived in this town their whole lives. This film frankly captured with a fixed camera, gives voice to the lives of the elderly men who have been left behind by Japan's economy.