STORY LAB SELECTION

Every Thursday, in a small community hall, an eclectic group begins pole dancing. Each of them seeks to reconnect with their body, to inhabit it fully. There are laughs, bruises, silences, and a shared strength that binds them. Upright, Laura, Trévis, Andréa, Norine and Arnaud defy gravity as much as expectations.

By day, Chems and Aymen attend the trial of the police officer who killed their 17-year-old friend, Nahel. At night, they listen to archives of the 1961 massacre of Algerians by the police in Paris. By relating their experiences to echoes from the past, the film exposes an enduring state violence and a systemic devaluation of certain lives.

Pays follows two schools : one with a schoolyard still covered in concrete, the other already re-greened. Through gestures, play and collaborative workshops, the film reveals how children imagine and then inhabit a living environment, sketching the possible forms of a more inhabitable world.

Five 20th-century female scientists made groundbreaking discoveries for humanity. But their work was usurped and misappropriated due to a centuries-old scientific patriarchy. Having forgiven in the name of science, they now seek to claim the top spot that is rightfully theirs.

Despite the intimidation she faces, Maria insists on investigating upon the region where she grew up. Around Almería, vast plastic greenhouses now sprawl, revealing the sheer scale of the agricultural project unfolding in southern Spain. As an architect and geographer, she struggles to adapt to this landscape and envisions a different way of shaping the territory.

Karamoko, 10, has a bright smile but lessons that elude him. Since arriving from Côte d’Ivoire, he has been trying to keep up at school, while his illiterate mother struggles with paperwork, institutions, and endless waiting. Middle school is approaching, the gap is widening. The solution exists, but it remains remains out of reach.

Following the conclusion that my local Norman language is dying out, I embark on a cinematic journey to understand why languages disappear. From Normandy to Anatolia via Hawaii, with the help of linguists and the last remaining speakers, I explore the mechanisms that threaten languages and seek out signs of their revival.

The Marquis de Sade turned the expression of human desire into a philosophy, radically exposing the moral contradictions of the 18th century. Today, his work,  often overlooked, proves essential for understanding the social upheavals of Western society. Sade is not dead: his legacy lives within each of us.