Rolin Camille
I wanted to be part of the A@W experience to meet other people in the same state of mind, with the same social involvment and need to give speech to those who are muted by dominant medias, to share experience of filmmaking, I wanted to be with people who are "Thinking the world" and making it different through their productions. I wanted to join A@W to be criticized, to go further. I wanted to work in a group to distance from myself and my own point of view, to be in a dialectic of discussion. I wanted to be part of this collective emulation! I'm pretty happy cause that's what happened :)
The project we're leading with Stephanie and Yasmine turns around "sexual and sensual accompaniment" for disable people. It's a project about the body as a place of pleasure, not only of sickness. The body as a place of empowerment and valorization of the human being. We want to question the role of the accompagniant, it's involment which is "total", and speak about how is build an intime relation between two strangers. We will speak of the story of Christine who's accompanying Pierre. We really want to play with sequences of daily lives of each character one after the other, before make them meet, as to show that two people who were not supposed to join, are finally meeting in the most intime way.
It is still not recognize in France as a right, and still assimililated to prostitution. Yes, people are paid to accompany, but in order to put a limit that prevent trouble between affective dependance and work of healing. Disable people have still to fight to make recognize themselves as sensual human beings, they got parking places and audio guides, but none of these replace eyes of love on yourself. The thing that catches us is that it's a taboo subject in a porn world.
We don't want to be voyeurist nor miserabilist, we don't want that spectators cry, we don't want to give any answer, we just want them to ask themselves questions.
We would take care of not speak only about the accompaniment, they are first woman and man in their normal lives. What is important for us is to show how each of them (Christine and Pierre) define the accompaniment and what it changes for their respective lives, on one hand the need, on the other the commitment.
We've just crossed the first step of our project: find our characters!
We will follow Christine and Pierre in their daily lives and in the accompaniement. Pierre is 36 years old, he's suffering from the Bardet-Biedl syndrome, he has recently joined the Paralysés de France association. After a long period of isolation, emotional deprivation and depression, he joined the national federation of naturism then followed a therapy to reclaim his body. Christine is a retired bank secretary and former judoka. She is an activist for human rights. Christine is also very active in her neighborhood. In her surroundings, she receives many different opinions about her practice.
Christine is a long-time activist, and has found a way to totally commit herself, the accompaniment. She really questioned at the beginning the fact of being paid, was embarrassed, then she understood that the money gave a frame, a limit to a whole and sensitive relation, it also allowed to recognize this accompaniment like a real work of care requiring knowledge and investment. Also, the day France finally recognizes the accompaniment as a therapeutic means, accompanied persons can be reimbursed. Christine is lively, raw, frank, she talks about love, and sex freely, she loves the body, the men, and just starts her accompaniments, she talks about her coquetry before each appointment, the role that must take "must she seduce? should she dress normally? ". We really want to film little moments when she questions herself and wonders about her role.
Pierre hesitated for a long time before asking for a sexual accompaniment, because, faced with the illegality of the practice, he was afraid of having problems, then he says to have "crossed the border", the accompaniment gave him confidence, and was a way for him to reintegrate into society and to be accepted. This helped him to redo his papers to the MDPH to be recognized as disabled, something he had been denied a decade ago. He says he owes a lot to Christine.
Titles always appear to me while shooting...or editing...patience!
I spoke about "embody" cause in french we can translate it by "s'incarner", means "create yourself in something or someone" but with the latin root "carne", means "flesh", so in the body. As in english, "to embody" means create yourself not only in mind but also in your body. So, I like this word, etymologically, it rings a bell regarding our subject, as if being in our sensual body, we can finally be in mind.