"I was born in Japan in the middle of the pacifist movement and I believed that the war belonged to the past. In 2003 in former Manchuria, 44 people were contaminated by chemical weapons and this accident made me realize that the ghosts of Japanese aggression still remained under Chinese soil."  A. Tanaka.

Spring, 1945. In the midst of the war, three civilian women chronicle the battle of Berlin in their diaries. They write under dramatic circumstances, including repeated rapes perpetrated by the conquering forces. These assaults on women’s bodies, the smallest common denominator in all conflicts, are kept silent by a persisting taboo.

Bringing together these on-the-scene accounts and the memories of other women who lived through the battle of Berlin, “The girls of the ruins” unearths this silent war which laid buried beneath the city’s rubble.

Broadcast : France 2, April 30, 2009

Three gifts. Three intimate discussions about cinema. During these three encounters, Japanese director Naomi Kawase (Grand Prix Cannes Film Festival 2007) reveals the vital and sensitive bonds which tie her to the world of cinema. This intimate reflection unveils the filmmaker's vision, and questions our own relationship to the world,  the fragility of that which surrounds us, the passage of time and all that resists oblivion.

STÉPHANE HESSEL, A HISTORY OF COMMITMENT
  by Christine Seghezzi - 52' - HDV - 2008

Stéphane Hessel played an active role in the history of the 20th century. He fought in the Resistance and was interned in a concentration camp during World War II. He spent his life defending human rights, as a French ambassador, a mediator for illegal immigrants and as one of the authors of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The film follows this great traveller nowadays in Paris, on trips within France, and to the Palestinian territories. At the age of 91, Stéphane Hessel keeps fighting for a fairer world, putting trust in the future, using humour and poetry.

This film is part of the documentary collection "Off-beat" (season 1), initiated by Groupe Galactica
Broadcast : Images Plus and TLSP, January 2009

Human Rights International Films Festival 2009 (Paris, France)
Selection DocOutlook 2009 (Nyon, Switzerland)
Human Rights Film Festival Morocco 2009 (Rabat, Morocco)
This Human World festival 2009 (Vienna, Austria)

Click here to see an extract of the movie in French.

DVD available in original version with English and Spanish subtitles.

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89 AVENUE DE FLANDRE
  by Alessandra Celesia - 73' - HDV - 2008

89 avenue de Flandre is a gigantic highrise just next to ring road in Paris. A vertical microcosm of a changing France, 29 floors high. A deaf 98 year old with a penchant for light opera… a woman and her 28 cats… a man looking after his 40 year old handicapped son… a retired shop assistant who spends her every minute helping others… rappers who sing the plight of the estate…
Solitude is everywhere, but a delicate web of relationships keeps it all from falling apart.

Broadcast : France 2, 2009

Selection Fipatel 2009

DVD available in original version with English and Italian subtitles.

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  THE DORMANTS
  by Pierre-Yves Vandeweerd - 60' - HD Cam & super 8 - 2008

In this movie, four different tales take us from Belgium to the banks of the Senegal river, from the North of France to the Western Sahara mountains. Every one of them leads us to encounters with dormants, men and women who evolve between two worlds ; the one of those already gone and the one of the living ; the states of awakening and sleep.

Coproduction Cobra Films / Gsara
Broadcast : a successul tour in French and Belgian cinemas, 2009

Click here to see an extract of the film in French.

DVD available in original version with English subtitles.

"A Belgian Story" is a documentary about the current political situation in Belgium. It is directed by Nathalie Borgers, a Belgian director who's been living in France for 13 years. The film is a road-movie in which Nathalie drives from Flemish cities to Walloon towns. Taking her camera to markets and cafés, interviewing merchants, Belgian citizens as well as politicians and intellectuals, she explores the issues at stake in the current political crises of Belgium.