DIRECT ACTION, IRIS éditions, 2025
Project by Guillaume Cailleau & Ben Russell
Edited by Leslie Auguste
Designed by Johanna Himmelsbach
Typography by Theetat Thunkijjanukij & Johanna Himmelsbach
Retranscriptions by Maxime Brousse
Translation by Ethan Footlik & Isa Fremeaux
Proofreading by Brigitte Jensen
While the film DIRECT ACTION is intended to be contemplative and silent, the book DIRECT ACTION is intended to be a counterpoint. After a screening of the film at the Notre-Dame-des-Landes ZAD in December 2023, Guillaume Cailleau and Ben Russell decided to extend the experience by collecting the stories of the film's protagonists, after screenings, in informal interviews or by correspondence.
The almost total absence of spoken political discourse in the film allows for the parallel existence of a book focused on language, reception and interpretation. These interventions consist of personal anecdotes, political histories and intimate details prompted by the images, revealing a rich network of links between a place, a person, a collective and a cause.
This approach has something in common with the work of visual anthropologists such as Robert Gardner and Jean Rouch in the 1970s and 80s, who often accompanied their audiovisual works with publications describing, defining and interpreting their images. It was not common, however, for these anthropologists to turn to their subjects for context and interpretation. In this publication, the aim is to draw primarily on the ZADists' impressions to extend the silence of the film into thick pages of language, to extend the work into the territories of history, memory, debate and militant strategy.
A critical text by Erika Balsom and a cross-interview with programmer and journalist Antoine Thirion accompany the words of Anaïs, Arthur, Baptiste, Benj, Cécile, -h-, Colette, Corentin, Étienne, Isa, Jasmin, Jay, Juli, Lara, Lino, Marcel, Mathilde, Michel, René, Servane, Sylvie, Thibault, Tanne, Tibo and Yahia.
BILINGUAL ENGLISH/FRENCH
21 cm x 29 CM
460 pages
60 images
36€
Distribution FR :
@serendiplivres
✊
