Les ateliers Varan

Portrait of a young woman through her relationship to money. The director films her friend for a whole month. The dynamic of the film is based on the bond between the director and Patricia, and on the reactions of this young woman to the financial difficulties, real or imaginary that she meets.

In Paris, there is a network of men married to young Filipinas, chosen through an international agency. Here is the portrait of a couple from this business: immersed in a happiness that drowns the spectator.

Wakis, a lumberjack in the Central African Republic, works with his family collecting wood to process into charcoal. But faced with its increasing scarcity—and to avoid conflicts with his neighbours—he must “hunt” trees further and further away from his production site. Tanguy Djaka Yarissi creates an accurate social chronicle about the insecurity of a traditional trade. – Emmanuel Chicon

The Vietnamese State has decided to modernise and to establish vast tourist complexes along the entire coastal zone of the agricultural region of Quang Nam, forcing peasants off their lands. The film recounts the reactions of the inhabitants, many of whom participated in the liberation struggle for the independence of Vietnam.

In 1985, the audiovisual training association Varan organized a documentary film workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa. The 12 young trainees filmed their community and their country from the inside, beyond the poor authorized journalistic clichés. Their material is organized in a chronicle, animated by the variety of subjects and views, and constitutes a real journey to the heart of apartheid, which we must look at today to measure how far we still have to go. 9 subjects are successively developed.

About questioning, cycling and moving on.

A secret figure in French underground cinema, Maria Koleva has filmed all over Paris, written about Marx and rubbed shoulders with the likes of Serge Daney. This documentary is a portrait of a histrionic Koleva, trying to reveal her militant, poetic and cinematographic universe, located in the Latin Quarter of Paris.

Montmartre, in the square. They pass each other, ogle and play. As much as they sniff, lick and bite each other. The regulars have a field day.

Tung is a young autistic boy. His parents do battle every day to have his illness recognized and better taken charge of by the state. Prejudice about mental illness is still very tenacious in Vietnam.

The grandfather tries to explain the family history, the traditions, privileges and duties of the eldest son to his grandson, who agrees to stay on in the village, unlike others of his generation who have left for the city.

A look at the life of society's outcasts through three locations: the Fleury-Mérogis prison, a low-income housing project in the Paris region, and the shacks of a vacant lot at the gateway to Saint-Ouen. A reflection on the idea and use of freedom.

Documenting the transformation of Bưởi Road in Hanoi, from a labyrinth of houses and small businesses to a highway, with demolition crew destroying buildings - some still inhabited, gleaners looking for metal scraps to sell for a living, and people living on the edge of this crowded road finding a way to keep on living.

For centuries, along the Mekong river, the brick kilns in Mang This used to be the symbol of the delta’s economic prosperity. Now, the last brick kilns finally come to an end.

Manuel raps about his life, his thoughts, his whole world of revolt, surrounded by the kind attention of the villagers who welcome him into their homes. Inhabited by his lyrics, he tries to live them and pass them on.

The father and mother of a little boy are both motorcycle cab drivers. The boy is often left alone in the single room that is their home. Produced by Ateliers Varan Vietnam.