"Cinema Verite : A Moment in History" - Sylvain L'Esperance

Cinema Verite - The Fly on the wall

; Sylvain L'Esperance - Cinema Verite : A Moment in History
"Documentary is a space, a practice that allows for all forms of subjective expression. It's a form of art unto itself", says Montreal -based director and producer Sylvain L'Esperance. He addresses social issues with formal rigour in films like Uncertain Springtimes, on the declining fortunes of a working-class neighbours, and two films about globalization - Pendant que fombent les arbres and Le Temps qu'il fait. His 2006 film The River Where We Live provides a vivid account of rural life along the Niger River making effective use of sound and the spoken word. He brings a formatoin in Fine Arts to his work

"At the start of Direct Cinema people talked about "Truth Cinema" But many filmmakers quickly stepped back from this notion. The term exists to name a moment in the history of documentary, but this so-called "cinema of truth" is anything but truth. What it shows is the truth of a subjective relationship, maybe. But certainly not an objective truth. We learned, with these first steps in direct cinema, the extent to which the films being produced were eminently personal. You can't separate the reality that Pierre Perrault filmed, or Arthur Lamothe or Gilles Groulx filmed from the personality of the filmmaker who made those films. For me there is a truth, that of the filmmaker and the authenticity of his relationship with the people he's filming"