Author, Françoise Davoine

Françoise Davoine (1943), a psychoanalyst in Paris, writes books about her conception of that much-discussed and contested discipline. Her view, which she shares with Jean-Max Gaudillière with whom she co-authored History Beyond Trauma (2006), is quite unusual: it is a rigorously social science. For them, the “officially” unanalysable forms of psychic problems, such as schizophrenia and psychosis – generally called “madness” are before all else consequences of ruptures in the social bonds that sustain life. These ruptures are the result of unimaginable, catastrophic violence. Repairing them involves the risky endeavour of extreme identification. Françoise draws upon fiction to understand the nuances of such forms of madness. Her imaginative books present theoretical insights through the fictional characters of Cervantes, Sterne, and here, bestaucasinosonline.com/nz/ in Mère folle, the tradition of the late medieval “sotties”, a form of political theatre. She also stages philosophers and other great thinkers who assist her thought process in dialogic form.

Co-director, Mieke Bal

Mieke Bal (1946), a cultural theorist and critic, is Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Professor (KNAW). She is based at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), University of Amsterdam. Her areas of interest range from biblical and classical antiquity to 17th century and contemporary art and modern literature, feminism and migratory culture. Her thirty books include A Mieke Bal Reader (2006), Travelling Concepts in the Humanities (2002) and Narratology (3d edition 2009). Mieke Bal is also a video-artist, her experimental documentaries on migration include A Thousand and One Days; Colony and the installation Nothing is Missing. Her work is exhibited internationally. Occasionally she acts as an independent curator.

Co-director, Michelle Williams Gamaker

Michelle Williams Gamaker is a video artist and writer. Her work varies from single frame portraits and installations to complex renderings of reality via documentary and fiction. The subtle and sublime potential of storytelling through the everyday is at the root of her work. Her video work was first recognised in 2001 at the Bloomberg New Contemporaries. Since then she has exhibited internationally; her documentaries include Elizabitch (2004), All About Évike (2005), Colony (2006) and Becoming Vera (2007).
For the past few years Michelle has taught part-time on the MFA Art Practice at Goldsmiths, London where she also researches her PhD in Visual Arts. She lives and works in Amsterdam.

Vincent Rafis

Our casting director in Paris : theater director, actor and dramaturge Vincent Rafis, who has worked on some fifteen theatrical creations in France and all over Europe. He is associated to the Centre Dramatique National d'Orléans-Loiret-Centre (direction Arthur Nauzyciel) and works with the Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu at the Centre Chorégraphique National de Créteil et du Val-de-Marne as well as the Théâtre National de Chaillot. At the University of Utrecht and the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS - Paris), he prepares a doctoral thesis and teaches dramaturgy and theatrical interpretation. He has published Mémoire et voix des morts dans le théâtre de Jon Fosse, ( 2009) at the Presses du réel.

Elan Gamaker

Writer/filmmaker Elan Gamaker was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1974. Following bachelor degrees in English, Linguistics and Drama & Film, he worked in the film industry in Cape Town and London between 1998 and 2003, before forming And Nu?, a creative collective specialising in scriptwriting, copywriting, video art, lens-based homage and post-production propaganda. He completed his first feature film, The Search for a South African Husband, in 2007 and twice attended the prestigious Binger Filmlab in Amsterdam, where he is now based. His recently completed first novel, Wayward Nature, was shortlisted for the 2008/9 European Union Literary Award. Elan has helped in many different ways, from editing scripts to camera, to actors coaching, and making the trailer.

Mia Hannula

Mia Hannula is a Finnish art historian. She has studied both art history and political science as her majors. Mia has worked as an assistant lecturer at the department of Art Studies in University of Turku. She has held several courses and lectures on contemporary art and theory, and also worked as a curator. Mia has published articles on contemporary art, migratory aesthetics, and aesthetics of conflict imagery and violence. She is currently working on her dissertation entitled ‘Towards an intercultural aesthetics. Cultural conflicts and encounters in contemporary relational art and experimental documentaries’. Mia initated the idea of filming in Finland, found Seili Island for us, and helped organize the shoot.

Sophie Pellaton Gaudillière

Sophie Pellaton Gaudillière is a freelance Communications director, in her own company, Begum. She is a graduate of Sciences Po with an MS in Political Science and International Economy (in Aix-en-Provence), and recipient of a DESS in Communications and Public Relations from the Celsa (Sorbonne). After ten years in the automotive industry, she obtained an MBA in International Business from the ENPC, worked as communications director in the green business. Then she founded Begum, in order to deal with projects which make sense, as launching a bookstore (La Portée des Mots), or assisting with Mère Folle as co-producer in Paris.

Juana María del Baño Espinosa

Juana María del Baño Espinosa, an art historian from the University of Murcia, is currently enrolled in a doctoral course on fundaments and methods of the history of art. She has worked in various audio-visual projects as script writer, producer, and director. Among her recent Works are Un ángel y medio (An Angel and a half), Solos los dos (Only the Two), El traje de boda (The Wedding Dress) and La torre del reloj (the Bell Tower), El corazón de Bulllas (The Herat of Bullas). She is a member of the cineclub Ocho y Medio and organises the Festival of First Works as well as the Cortomaratón, a contest of short films. She is a member of the Aossiciation of Script Writers of the Región de Murcia. Juana was a co-producer of the shooting of the final scene of Mère Folle.

Oscar Espín Gómez

Oscar Espín Gómez is finishing his final Project in the School of Architecture of the Universidad Europea de Madrid. He is a maker of short films, a videomaker, photographer and draughtsman. Among his recent Works are Cada Tiempo Tiene Su Cielo, Ocaso ADH, Colornización (a video work exhibited at the Biennial of Architecture in Rotterdam in 2006), Paseos por la Arquitectura y el Arte,  (a video exhibited as the Biennial of Mexico in 2007). He is a co-maker (with Juana María) of Un ángel y medio, he made the video Ángel contra Ángel, and has exhibited in a variety of galleries in Murcia, such as the Centro Párraga, Fundación José Jiménez García, and Espacio Victoria. He is currently in postproduction of his first feature film, Verano Blue. Oscar was a co-producer of the shooting of the final scene of Mère Folle.

Miguel Á. Hernández Navarro

Miguel Á. Hernández Navarro is professor of modern art at the University of Murcia. He is a writer and critic. After co-founding and coordinating CENDEAC, a centre of the Región de Murcia for advanced study and documentation in contemporary art, from 2003 to 2007, he directed the institute intul the end of 2009. Among his many books is 2MOVE: Video Art Migration (with mieke Bal), a publication that accompanied a traveling video exhibition they curated together. His books El archivo escotómico de la modernidad: pequeños pasos para una cartografía de la visión (2007) and La so(m)bra de lo Real: el arte como vomitorio (2006) are in-depth studies of modern and contemporary art. He has also published books of poetry and fiction, and curated several exhibitions. Miguel has initiated contacts and possibilities in Spain.

Mailis Saralehto

Mailis Saralehto Rekola (b. 1976, Finland) is working in various fields of media installation art and painting. Her artistic work is strongly conceptual with multi-structural layers and techniques. The academic and artistic background helps her to identify with the theoretical concepts. Through these mechanisms she is challenging the viewer with concepts of public spectacle, wound culture, film theory, psychoanalysis, feminism and memory. At the moment she is concentrating on the various collective media art projects. Mailis has helped with organizing the shoot in Finland and raising funding for it.

Henri-Michel Yéré

Henri is close to finishing a PhD in history at the University of Basel, Switzerland. The subject of his study is the history of his country of origin, Ivory Coast. Henri has been our co-producer in Basel when we filmed the Carnival there, which has a unique tradition going back to the time in which parts of Mère Folle are set. He also plays two parts in the film. Like many, he is both a Fool and a patient. He also plays a brief appearance of the allegory of Time.

Cinema Suitcase

Often with the collective Cinema Suitcase, Mieke Bal and Michelle Williams Gamaker have made a number of documentary films that seek to facilitate the self-narration of their subjects, encountered on the basis of intimacy, rather than constructing their stories for them. This approach enhances the performative quality of filmmaking as a collective process. The films refrain from deploying narrative voice-over and only contain set sound. Stories are not chronological but emerge from associative links, constituting a kind of “free indirect style.” Mère folle is their first fiction film. The loosely organised collective consists of Mieke Bal, Zen Marie, Thomas Sykora, Gary Ward, and Michelle Williams Gamaker.

Tunnelma®

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