Director Statement

SIMON is a genrecrossing, dizzying dive; an inside-outside passage through dance.

Passage from the imaginary to the real, from childhood to adulthood. SIMON is therefore an inevitable redemption: a meditation, the initiation ritual of a character who faces his own accidents. The body is inhabited by the constant movement of the imbalance into the fall. The gloves drop, multiply, pour, and fall. Hackneyed gestures, infinite shifts from the body. From the camera. From the inside outwards. Incessant inside & outside. An actor prepares for his final entry onto the grand stage. We follow him on his inner journey, from the lodge to the stage.

The opening scene is a tribute to Pina Bausch. The dark chairs draw on the floor as human shadows. These chairs are us; our humanity, our fragility, our clashes, our excesses. The man falls, gets up, falls again. The man dances with his own life, with his desires and surprises. He dances with the elements, with his fears and inner impulses. Music is the central axis of my work. It is my primary source of inspiration. It is the music that sets my creative process in motion and gives it its rhythm. The figure of childhood appears through the character of the little dog. This dog is the benevolent soul, the reassuring angel that accompanies us and who we care for. And the rampart to solitude, or to the sense of abandonment. Here is the pillow that consoles. Feathers, flakes. It is also the animalistic part of the dancer who rises and falls, gets up, and finally stands up to face his own life. No one is more alone than the actor who enters the stage. No one is more alone than the child who’s about to join adulthood. And when the imaginary joins reality, the figure of childhood explodes.

Awards

Richmond International Film Festival (Grand Jury Prize, Best Short Film, 2016)
Miami Short Film Festival (Best Film and Best Experimental, 2015)
Chicago International Arthouse (Best Narrative Short and Jury Prize for Sound Design)
Malibu Film Festival (Best Experimental)
Humboldt International Film Festival (Best Experimental)
Santa Cruz Film Festival (Best Experimental Short)
Accolade Global Film Competition Awards (Award of Merit: Experimental)
The Best Shorts Competition (Award of Merit: Experimental)
Big Mini Media Festival (Best Experimental)
The Women Indie Fest (Best Experimental)