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Liberty is in your mind

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’15s, 2018).
8 August 2018. Published by Benoît Labourdette.

Remember that freedom is conquered first within us, whatever the external situation.

Technical sheet

  • Film shot at the Vabamu Museum of Occupations and Freedom (Tallinn, Estonia).
  • Music: Inner Mongolian Youth Choir.
  • Director, image, sound, editing: Benoît Labourdette.
  • 2018.

Diffusion

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All the films in « Short films »
Door
Door

A film by Benoît Labourdette (1’54s, 2018).

Listening at the doors. A deeper, poetic and contemplative exercise than one might imagine at first glance.
Love in the confined present tense
Love in the confined present tense

A film by Benoît Labourdette, with the collaboration of Marie Désert, François Cany and Jean-Baptiste Hanak (1’00s, 2020).

Palimpsest of confined lives, of pictorial references, of nascent love, of graphic and audiovisual performance, between Paris and Nantes in 2020.
Jesus
Jesus

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’48s, 2016). With the voice of Bénédicte Loyen.

In Western society, the written language was invented again to name God. Our words carry weight of the religious, in spite of us. Seek to understand ...
No picture on screen
No picture on screen

A film by Benoît Labourdette ( 2’54s , 2015).

The mystery of physiological processes at work in a movie theater.
In their absence
In their absence

A film by Benoît Labourdette (1’43s, 2019).

There are times when you have the feeling, if not the certainty, that you’ve missed the point.
Vanitas
Vanitas

A film by Benoît Labourdette (12’56s, 2016). With Bénédicte Loyen.

Feverish dream in a baroque chapel. A vanitas with words.
The kiss 1234567
The kiss 1234567

A film by Benoît Labourdette (12’46s, 2013).

How to share the silent screams, behind families with smooth histories ?
The Unanswered Question Revisited
The Unanswered Question Revisited

Benoît Labourdette’s film and music (2’07s, 2018).

What is life? Can simple little plastic animals help us find the answer to this question?
Parking dance #100
Parking dance #100

A film by Sandra Abouav and Benoît Labourdette (3’27s, 2020).

Flying danced deliriums sung. A choreography between a drone and dancers, for the hundredth and last opus of Sandra Abouav’s “Parking Dance” series (2017-2020). Presentation by Sandra AbouavIt (…)
At the station
At the station

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’41s, 2016).

The intimate perception of the inner voices of passing humans, which leads to a choice of life.
What do you fear?
What do you fear?

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’12s, 2022).

Make a list of your fears, to maybe trigger something.
News from father
News from father

A movie by Benoît Labourdette (2’19s, 2014).

Life on a blank screen...
Each morning
Each morning

A film by Benoît Labourdette (5’44s, 2013).

Charles, 37-year old boy who lost his mother a year ago, sometimes perceive the world in a distorted way, multiplied, time and space losing their reality. A meeting will change his life.
Straw fire
Straw fire

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’27s, 2019).

Dead animals are helplessly witnessing human violence.
Luminous object
Luminous object

A film by Benoît Labourdette (1’42s, 2019).

“When the eye, emerging from the darkness, suddenly sees a luminous object, it will seem much larger at first sight than in the long run.” Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks (optical).
Pencil camera
Pencil camera

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’11s, 2005).

One of the first movies shot with mobile phone.
Behind the scenes
Behind the scenes

A film by Benoît Labourdette (1’41s, 2005).

Preparations for a cinematic event.
Serious accident for a traveler
Serious accident for a traveler

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’43s, 2005).

In 2005, the cameras appear in the phones, and invite to film the daily. One of the first movies shot on mobile phones.
Back to childhood
Back to childhood

A film by Benoîtenoît Labourdette (2’10s, 2023).

Life was a gift.
Moving forward into the impossible
Moving forward into the impossible

A film by Benoît Labourdette (4’54s, 2025).

After the negation of life, how can we move forward, in the impossible?
The beach
The beach

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’54s, 2021).

On an indoor beach, memories and sensual projections.
Just a tree
Just a tree

A film by Benoît Labourdette - text by Sonia Leplat (1’28s, 2021).

Thinking, overthinking...
Bell tower
Bell tower

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’26s, 2013).

On the way to autofiction, a conversation between a father and his son, played by the same voice.
Fragile hopscotch in the sky
Fragile hopscotch in the sky

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’31s, 2019).

The inner experience of a moment of pedagogical innovation in the classroom.
Little moon
Little moon

A film by Benoît Labourdette (1’26s, 2023).

I try to look further, to feel deeper.
Oh night
Oh night

A film by Benoît Labourdette (1’29s, 2022).

A postcard seems to come to life, and write its own legend.
Step by step
Step by step

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’21s, 2021).

One foot in front of the other, but where to?
Myopia
Myopia

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’33s, 2021).

Myopia can be triggered by trauma. We are left with poetry.
Spectra
Spectra

A film by Benoît Labourdette, in collaboration with Louise Moaty (3’59s, 2014).

Charlotte Delbo’s words emanate from human traces of people who were living there a few hours earlier.
I parked my scooter
I parked my scooter

A film by Benoît Labourdette (1’38s, 2003).

“I parked my scooter, I lost my scooter. If someone found it, he can bring it to me.” Small musical and visual variation humorous.
I've seen you
I’ve seen you

A film by Benoît Labourdette (4’09s, 2014).

Where is our body ?
Under the cobblestones of Belfast Beach
Under the cobblestones of Belfast Beach

A film by Benoît Labourdette (1’05s, 2005).

The fascination of being able to film what happens in everyday life, thanks to the first mobile phones equipped with cameras.
The red jars
The red jars

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’27s, 2021).

Man domesticates nature. For good or bad reasons? Maybe it’s a little more complicated than we thought. Hints for a philosophical reflection
A tree in tears grows again
A tree in tears grows again

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’05s, 2023).

Life after.
Back in time
Back in time

A film by Benoît Labourdette (1’26s, 2023).

What if, what if, what if... sometimes you wish you could turn back the clock.
Cinema folded
Cinema folded

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’53s, 2013).

Where is cinema ? What is cinema ?
A seated man
A seated man

A film by Benoît Labourdette (7’37s, 2022).

The work of mourning, such a slow movement of life.
The book's title
The book’s title

A film by Benoît Labourdette (6’41s, 2021).

On the difficulty of writing, of forming a sensitive and true trace of the most intimate and precious things. Immersion in the head of an author in search of the memory of a moment of sensuality.
Here lived filmmaker Boris Lehman
Here lived filmmaker Boris Lehman

A film by Benoît Labourdette (8’50s, 2013).

The visit of an empty Paris apartment, where several people lived successively. Memory fumes artists Sophie Calle and Boris Lehman.
Memory Palace
Memory Palace

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’17s, 2022).

How can a simple place become the crucible for the revelation of our childhood memories?
Indifference
Indifference

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’53s, 2005).

Rediscover the world, between its real and imaginary dimensions, with a new shooting tool.
FrEE zonE
FrEE zonE

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’52s, 2017).

The remembrance of a drama, and an unexpected confession.
Paris Yellow Pages
Paris Yellow Pages

A film by Benoît Labourdette (1’, 2019).

Paris as seen by its paper directory in 2019.
The men on camera
The men on camera

A film by Benoît Labourdette (4’45s, 2015).

Visual composition, music and sound, from a noisy flying camera, referring to the movie “The Man with a Camera” (Dziga Vertov, 1929).
Metro meditation
Metro meditation

A film by Benoît Labourdette (7’, 2017).

To be there without being there, not to be there by being there. To be above all within oneself. Meditate. In the subway.
Clément Thomas Joseph Marianne Philippe
Clément Thomas Joseph Marianne Philippe

A film by Benoît Labourdette (11’17s, 2013).

In life, the most important things, whether happy or tragic, often happen by accident. The story of a man, not young, caught in the spiral of family repetition and humiliation experienced. It will (…)
The hand
The hand

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’03s, 2021).

Man’s hand is what gives him speech.
Sands Hotel
Sands Hotel

A film by Benoît Labourdette (6’28s, 2016).

Remember the presence of the lost loved one in a hotel room surrounded by sand.
Chairs
Chairs

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’26s, 2012). Musical improvisation by Olivier Mellano.

We all sat on chairs in classrooms. We make these chairs ? What do they give us ?How they welcome us ? Can we look at them differently than in a utilitarist point of view ? Besides, are they (…)
Fire (white monkey)
Fire (white monkey)

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’14s, 2017).

At night, when anxiety is there, if one dares to look beyond the ashes of life, one can see an image of salvation.
Inside time
Inside time

Film by Benoît Labourdette (3’34 s, 2016).

Reading of the last paragraphs of “’Remembrance of Things Past” by Marcel Proust. Links between literature, painting and movement.
Brahim's backpack
Brahim’s backpack

A film by Benoît Labourdette (5’04s, 2016).

A rat race, to mourn the departure of the beloved.
Made in China
Made in China

A film by Benoît Labourdette (6’07s, 2017).

Plastic animals are talking to us.
The young witch
The young witch

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’23s, 2020).

The child knows her powers.
The crossing of the Comic!
The crossing of the Comic!

A film by Macha Makeïeff and Benoît Labourdette (9’53s, 2015). With Thomas Morris and the dog Siegfried.

A frantic sequence shot through all the unusual places of the Comic Opera building in Paris. The pursuit of an imaginary singer, in search of her dog and her “Maestro”!
Men and doll
Men and doll

A film by Benoît Labourdette (4’58s, 2014).

Bordeaux. Saint-Michel square with roadworks. Night. Hardly anyone goes. The memory of a tragedy within the body of a disjointed doll.
Coco
Coco

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’15s, 2020).

A coconut shares her image problems: will she succeed in gaining confidence in her qualities?
At the Venice stadium
At the Venice stadium

A film by Benoît Labourdette (6’11s, 2018).

A traumatic event disrupts the past, the present and the notion of reality.
Blue eyes
Blue eyes

A film by Benoît Labourdette (4’47s, 2016).

Facing our child, real or imagined.
Animals at the window, the hill of light
Animals at the window, the hill of light

A film by Benoît Labourdette (5’12s, 2019).

Eat the animals or not? What if the animals speak for themselves?
Poster
Poster

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’02s, 2012).

A touch film, made of paper and words.
That light
That light

A flm by Benoît Labourdette (1’36s, 2022).

One night, as if nothing had happened.
Uprooted
Uprooted

A film by Benoît Labourdette (4’01s, 2021).

To see oneself in front of the roots of a tree.
Your attention please
Your attention please

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’08s, 2011).

A station dock, a Flip camera on the ground, the voice-over of the stationmaster, waiting travelers, a train arriving...
You are here
You are here

A film by Benoît Labourdette (5’33s, 2011).

The blind run in the streets.
Two hands
Two hands

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’07s, 2023).

How to accompany the one who is no longer there?
Hold your right
Hold your right

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’57s, 2005).

Movement of the human gaze, gaze of the machines, movement of the world...
An adult tree
An adult tree

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’19s, 2022).

If I had known, if I could have, and yet I was always there.
Break
Break

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’36, 2012).

“Break”, this time of the working day in which humans are placed in a non-productive state finally.
Reflection alone
Reflection alone

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’38s, 2022).

How to find oneself and the world after the shock?
Heart of/for freedom
Heart of/for freedom

A film by Benoît Labourdette (1’40s, 2019).

Beyond the barriers, barbed wire, prisons, the living heart is still beating.
Are you calling for help?
Are you calling for help?

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’01s, 2022).

Step by step, the quest for life, meeting a tragic fate.
Choir
Choir

A film by Benoît Labourdette (4’10s, 2012).

Music softens morals.
Paris, end of August
Paris, end of August

A film by Benoît Labourdette, 4 minutes, 2009, digital, Scope 2.35, Color, stereo.

We meet a homeless in the street and we forget, one minute later.
Dead leaf
Dead leaf

A film by Benoît Labourdette (8’33s, 2012).

A little piece of nature in the middle of the city is a microcosm of nature impulses of life. Love, the mix of bodies, dramas, reunion, always. Crosses of stories on feelings and bodies.
Night road
Night road

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’44s, 2013).

“Small child at the bottom of the back seat of the car, travel and night lights are not very real. With the help of tire, three minutes of travel on the street appear three long hours of (…)
Madeleine
Madeleine

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’23s, 2010).

Musical nostalgia in the subway in Toronto.
Spike proteins
Spike proteins

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’51s, 2023).

People who have stood up for the respect of humanity are always present, even to help those who had decried them.Directed, text, voice, image and music by Benoît Labourdette, 2023.This (…)
Teachers' lounge
Teachers’ lounge

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’07s, 2012).

Everyday life without apparent problems, in this teacher’s room of a high school near Paris. But it conceals dark secrets... a fiction inspired by real events.Ten years after the making of this (…)
Openings
Openings

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’51s, 2013).

Paradoxical injunctions in school space of a College, with a musical treatment.
No entry
No entry

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’58s, 2013).

Body, space and timeA body in the city at night. The body of the eye. The look of the body. The experience of coming and going, which is the breath of a city. Is the time in the city, is a (…)
First
First

A film by Benoît Labourdette (6’29s, 2013).

A former disused hotel on the Place du Capitole in Toulouse is the scene of an inner musical divagation.
Perpetual motion
Perpetual motion

A film by Benoît Labourdette (1’22s, 1998).

Ode to childbirth by a young adult.
Cold fire at the castle
Cold fire at the castle

A film by Benoît Labourdette (1’17s, 2023).

At times, past, present, fiction and reality are intertwined. The present moment becomes a tale.
The fear
The fear

A film by Benoît Labourdette (9’28s, 2016).

Sensitive sharing of therapeutic indications to fight against fear, this kind of fear present inside of each.
Far
Far

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’43s, 2013).

“Far, far away in my thoughts, at the end of the screen of my eyes printed with electronic images.”
Dream
Dream

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’15s, 2005).

Looks and desires in the subway.
Vocal strings
Vocal strings

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’31s, 2012).

From the eroticism of the musical instrument.
Sleeping in Paris
Sleeping in Paris

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’41s, 2023).

Finding meaning in life, despite its most terrible tragedies
The meeting
The meeting

A film by Benoît Labourdette (5’16s, 2011).

A meeting, like a thousand other meetings. No, it is your meeting.
The old hallway
The old hallway

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’44s, 2021).

The adult world, incomprehensible to a dominated, abused child.
City lights
City lights

A film by Benoît Labourdette (4’00s, 2023).

Our two eyes see left-right with a gap, before-after with memory, front-back with their mobility; they create relief and depth.
Nature
Nature

A flim by Benoît Labourdette (3’08s, 2021).

Getting back in touch with nature is not that simple.
A heritage of life
A heritage of life

A film by Françoise Simpère et Benoît Labourdette (2’13s, 2020).

What we know we’ll take with us on the day we die is probably what can feed our life energy.
The line
The line

A film by Benoît Labourdette (4’06s, 2020).

Light is what gives existence.
Waves are water
Waves are water

A film by Benoît Labourdette (4’14s, 2023).

Meditation on the depth of feeling in the world, based on a quote from Thich Nhat Hanh.
The book
The book

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’27s, 2018).

Gather around a book, gather yourself.
Next train
Next train

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’51s, 2024).

Time stands still. And then life returns. Pain is life. Sweetness is life. Replications. Messages. Double helix. Heal. ExtensionsWhen we live through borderline or traumatic experiences, we may (…)
Liberty is in your mind
Liberty is in your mind

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’15s, 2018).

Remember that freedom is conquered first within us, whatever the external situation.
Opening soon
Opening soon

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’34s, 2013).

The speech of a father to his son for the opening of their next clothing store. Capitalism, sexism...
H building
H building

A film by Benoît Labourdette (7’03s, 2012).

The metaphor for the journey of life of a human being through a visual journey “kaleidoscopic” in a building.
The red house
The red house

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’17s, 2020).

Back to the place that resources us.
Accident
Accident

A film by Benoît Labourdette (1’57s, 2018).

“Accident on a white desert dune. There are only wrinkles left.”
Black series
Black series

A film by Benoît Labourdette (10’06s, 2015). With Marion Geerebaert.

After the death was sown into arbitrariness, a young woman comes back to haunt her mate.
Vire, next stop
Vire, next stop

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’48s, 2013).

One day a train. Chopped audiovisual form, from which emerge childhood memories, confrontation with the self-forgetfulness.
Pascal's flowers
Pascal’s flowers

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’18s, 2011).

Invent a tale. Ground the story into reality. Why does the shape of the tale in 2011 ? Probably to make again metaphor, universal. A simple love story.
Going to the sea?
Going to the sea?

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’35s, 2022).

Not yet understanding the disappearance of his child. Looking for him. Not finding him. Try to change the perspective.
Barcelona hotel
Barcelona hotel

A film by Benoît Labourdette (4’44s, 2012).

Autofiction on adultery.
On the void
On the void

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’35s, 2021).

Meditate, yes... but how to do it?
The land
The land

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’25s, 2020).

“A place of one’s own, what is it?”
Already the architecture
Already the architecture

A film by Benoît Labourdette (4’36s, 2018).

Contemplative quest for meaning in an abandoned summer camp.
Reserved for nurses
Reserved for nurses

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’19s, 2011).

The trace, in the places, of the stories and dramas that took place there. A reserved parking space, another reserved parking space, empty at the moment we look at them, but which have seen so (…)
Relic
Relic

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’49s, 2024).

How can we give a place in our Life to those who have left?
Imaginary territory
Imaginary territory

Artwork digital video. Benoît Labourdette (5’51s, 2014).

Abstract shapes, children color from the sky.
Remembering Alice
Remembering Alice

A film by Benoît Labourdette (6’40s, 2017). With Marion Geerebaert.

A mother returns in the footsteps of her missing daughter. The work of mourning, like the work of birth, is a work of unconditional love.
Around
Around

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’33s, 2013).

In Vitrolles, in the south of France, a rocky peak overlooking the city. It is found scattered clothes and a mobile phone, in which there was a movie and a text. The work of a madman, it seems, (…)
ROSEBUD 2022, the end of cinema
ROSEBUD 2022, the end of cinema

A film by Benoît Labourdette (4’45s, 2022).

To grieve is to carry more weight. It is to live with the absence. It is to become more lucid. It means having to be stronger. It is to be more joyful of everything.
Light in a window
Light in a window

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’06s, 1999-2019).

A contemplative journey through the energy of light, between nature and electronics.
Trees and a woman
Trees and a woman

A film by Françoise Simpère and Benoît Labourdette (6’38s, 2020).

A walk, an intimate dialogue with oneself and with nature, a path to find oneself, to be in the world. A film born from a dialogue between images and text.
At the time
At the time

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’31s, 2020).

The most beautiful memories can be without nostalgia, because life goes on.
Trio
Trio

Experimental film by Benoît Labourdette (7’26s, 2015). With Marta Zielinska and Senghte Vanh Bouapha.

A couple of “Living ghosts” emanate from the walls, floors, windows, of an old apartment.
The event
The event

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’38s, 2021).

Observe what is going on behind the eternal appearances.
Stones of memory
Stones of memory

A film by Benoît Labourdette (8’44s, 2021).

A meditation on the construction of one’s own memory, one’s “memory palace”.
End of the silent movie
End of the silent movie

A film by Benoît Labourdette (2’31s, 2021).

At times, time and space are reversed.
Fragile and forgotten silhouettes
Fragile and forgotten silhouettes

A film by Benoît Labourdette (3’15s, 2023).

Do we remember these living figures, near or far, multiple, these moments of intense life? As in a painting by Bruegel the Elder, there is no whole, but a multitude of small details juxtaposed.
  Short films
At the time

I make short films as a painter makes paintings, usually in a lonely way, away from academic practices of making cinema. Some films are made in a very spontaneous way, others can take years to mature. I explore the meeting between the image and the world. These are experimental works, which often also tell stories...

Tags

Freedom

Tallinn

War

Estonia

Suitcase
See also