By my window: Film what you see through a window in your home, and tell about an important memory.

On 1 April 2020, during the period of confinement in France, I opened the video contribution platform www.parmafenetre.fr..

Following the numerous feedbacks I received, creating these films, as much as watching them, did a lot of good to those who participated. This delicate sharing of each person’s inner world thus weaves precious links, in depth. Cinema, which is becoming a shared space of expression, is reinventing itself. As soon as it opens up to everyone’s images, it again becomes a powerful tool for connecting with oneself and with others.

Here’s the text of the call for films:

Why?

Our memories belong to us, are intimate, they are not meant to be told. So why do I propose to tell one, by filming what you see through a window in your home? You are not doing it for yourself, you are doing it for others: choose a important memory in your life that you feel can be enriching for others. Rich in teaching, in human depth, in joy, in laughter! Think not of yourself, but of those who will listen to you. It is for them that you remember and tell, to give them something precious that you have within you. A movie is like a gift.

In this time of general confinement, perhaps we are each reduced to the essentials. To share in words what is essential to us, it’s very simple, very profound and important. For those who will listen to our films and also for ourselves, because putting words to what is inside us is also to know ourselves better, to discover ourselves.

How?

Take a moment alone. To enter into oneself, one needs a privileged, intimate moment, because it is fragile and sensitive. Even just 5 minutes. 5 minutes just for you. Put in front of the window. You’re going to film what you see from your window, and you’re going to talk while you film. What’s being filmed may have nothing to do with what you remember. Or maybe what you see through the window is going to bring back a memory. Or maybe your memory has nothing to do with containment. That’s probably why it’s important to share it, during this period of confinement. And the fact that you are not seen, that “the eye is occluded” (Serge Tisseron), makes it easier to speak sincerely.

Film in one go, without editing. Let the movement of your thoughts go, one idea leading to another. If at times you are stuck, leave the silence, it will be an opportunity for the spectator to rethink what you have just said. And then, you’ll see, a new idea will come up on its own. How long should the film last? It is your memory that will impose its time, its rhythm. Some films will last 30 seconds, others 5 minutes. You may have to start over several times.

Often, we feel that our life, our memories, are of no interest. In fact, what is interesting is our sincerity. It is that value which is enriching. It’s absolutely normal to feel that the little film we made is useless and uninteresting. Few people are proud of them. But do it and send your film anyway, because if you were sincere, others will get something out of it. What is precious is always fragile.

Here are the technical guidelines:

• Hold your phone horizontally (so that your film can be easily viewed on the computer or in the cinema). Avoid zooming in, it makes the picture unstable. Speak clearly, so that you can be understood.
• Prepare a title for your film, written on a sheet of paper for example, as well as an end credits, “a film of...”. You will start by filming the title and end by filming the credits, so it will be a “real film”! Remember to film them for at least 3 to 4 seconds (it seems too long, but it is necessary).
• So, when you have finished filming, your film will be ready, and visible right away!
• Send me your video file directly by Wetransfer (benoit benoitlabourdette.com), or publish it on a video platform (YouTube or Vimeo for example) and send me the link.
• I’ll put it online on www.parmafenetre.fr, and I’ll reply by giving you the link to your video on the site. You will then be able to share this link on your social networks.
• You can propose movies all the time, even after the confinement, there is no deadline. The website www.parmafenetre.fr will remain open.

Inspirations

Never have the windows in our apartments been so important. Confined to our homes, we are condemned to see our street, our neighbourhood or our courtyard through them. And the screens that surround us are ultimately just other windows through which we try to see other fragments of the world.

So let’s sit with our mobile phone in front of one of them, and film what’s behind it. Very quickly, what we see reminds us of something else. First of all, everything is so different from the time before, the time before the confinement of course. There’s no one in the street, not a car, not a sound of footsteps, you can even hear the birds...

But your memory quickly calls for other memories. You remember that here a sick tree was cut down, or you remember the day it was in bloom, or a building was destroyed, or built. You have been moved, you have been angry, or perhaps even a family event that changed your life comes to mind. It was the day my father died, the day you agreed to come to my house for the first time, the day you told me you were pregnant.

How much time do we spend outside our window, how many things pass through our minds when we let our faces slide towards the glass that separates us from the outside? It is impossible for us to escape from home at the moment other than in our thoughts. Let’s take our revenge, let’s make it hurt that we can’t get out an excitement for our imagination, and let’s share our dreams and nostalgia. Our inner world is too rich to leave it confined!

Serge Tisseron, March 28, 2020.

Who?

Everyone has the right to participate. Everyone’s word is of great value to others. I invite you to spread it around you.

I am Benoît Labourdette, filmmaker and educator. For 11 years I have been regularly proposing to people, within the framework of internships, professional training and cultural actions, to tell an important memory by filming through the window of their home. Nearly 1,500 films of this type have been made since 2009. They have been screened for the groups in which they were made. They are always very strong moments, of discovery of oneself and of others, of oneself through others, and then of intense emotion, of daring to reveal oneself, of overcoming the fear of judgment, of daring to be oneself in the end.

On March 24, 2020, at the suggestion of filmmaker Marion Geerebaert, I put online a montage of 44 of these films, which I had made in 2013, but which had remained private. The result is a one-hour film, « Remember here by the window », which strongly echoes the current situation. It was very much appreciated, I received a lot of feedback, especially from people who suggested around them to do the same exercise, during the confinement. I have also been strongly encouraged to propose, during this period of confinement, the same exercise of expression, so simple and so rich. That is the reason for the existence of this platform, which opened on 1 April 2020.

One could say: “Ah, one more call for contributions”! Actually, I think that’s not the point. There are, in such a difficult period of containment, many initiatives, many proposals for expression, so much the better!

Where?

Your film belongs to you, of course. It is broadcast on the website www.parmafenetre.fr. If it was shot in the department of Seine-Saint-Denis and lasts less than 3 minutes, it will also be broadcast on Courts intérieurs. And the films offered at Courts intérieurs shot at the window will also be broadcast on www.parmafenetre.fr.

Partners

This project is conducted in partnership with :

• Est Ensemble and Seine-Saint-Denis Department.
• The town of Lilas.
• The Lycée Rotrou de Dreux.
• The International Festival of Valence.
• The Imagine Institute (Ouagadougou - Burkina Faso).