Country: France
Year: 2012
Duration: 47'
The constant gaze of a webcam captures a space devastated by an invisible evil, such as radioactivity, but paradoxically also captures all the beauty of nature after a catastrophy like Fukushima. The workers move about like astronauts in the deserted area of the nuclear power plant, where radioactive substances floating and disappearing in the air seem to be the only presence around.
Biography
film director
Philippe Rouy
Philippe Rouy (France) is a videoartist who has made several films screened in many international film festivals; at the Vila do Conde Film Festival in 2009 he presented Hypn, which also received the Best Film Award at the Stuttgarter Filmwinter. In 2011 La voûte was selected at Rotterdam, and Cheval blême at the Oberhausen Festival. From 2012 to 2014 he realized three shorts on the devastation of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant during the tsunami in March 11th, 2011: 4 bâtiments, face à la mer (2012), wich gained a special mention at FIDMarseille and participated in documentary competition in Turin, Machine to Machine (2013) and Fovea Centralis (2014). They form the so-calleed “Fukushima Trilogy.”
FILMOGRAFIA
Beyrouth, littoral (cm, 2002), Etán (cm, 2004), Au fur que tu perdras la vue (2008), Survisions (2008), Hypn (cm, 2009), Cheval blême (2009), La voûte (2010), 1862 (2011), 4 bâtiments, face à la mer (mm, 2012), Machine to Machine (mm, 2013), Fovea Centralis (mm, 2014).
Declaration
film director
“The images of the official webcam installed by TEPCO (the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant) are interesting because of all the paradoxes they encompass. They are used for the communication of a firm, yet they give direct access to an off-limits outerworld, where an irreversible process of uncivilisation is underway. I stopped collecting images when it started snowing on the site, after eight months of non stop recording. When I started logging footage, I realized that the unusual length of images opened a door onto the inconceivable temporalities induced by nuclear power and radioactivity.”
Cast
& Credits
regia, montaggio, suono/director, film editing, sound
Philippe Rouy
contatti/contacts
Philippe Rouy
p.rouy@free.fr
Philippe Rouy
contatti/contacts
Philippe Rouy
p.rouy@free.fr
