What is the role of editing in documentary film? How do the recorded material and the film maker's vision come together in the editing to make a film?
Editor Claire Atherton is at the top of her field when it comes to striving for formal clarity and radical candour in artistic expression. She made her name through her 30-year collaboration with the Belgian film maker Chantal Akerman (1950-2015), most recently working on the documentary NO HOME MOVIE (2015). Moreover, she has worked as editor with a wide range of directors, young film makers and film students.
With Claire Atherton, we will use selected example films to immerse ourselves in the practice and philosophy of editing documentary films: what are the issues in her mind during the screening and editing of raw material? What is her editorial philosophy? Which strategies has she developed when handling images and sound?
Over the last two years, FOCAL and Visions du Réel have offered seminars on non-linear narrative forms. To continue the series this year, FOCAL is a partner of ‹Dada-Data: Presentation of Switzerland's First Interactive Webdoc Project›.
Claire Atherton, F, editor, after studying Chinese language and culture she met the Belgian film maker Chantal Akerman in 1986, and edited her film LETTERS HOME. This was the beginning of a long period of collaborating with the film maker on her documentaries, feature films and installations. Her work was also influenced by her collaborations with film makers such as Luc Decaster, Noëlle Pujol, Andreas Bolm, Emmanuelle Demoris, Elsa Quinette, Christophe Bisson.
Moderation
Lionel Baier, CH, has been making documentaries and feature films since 1999. Since 2002, Head of the film department at the ‹Ecole Cantonal d'Art de Lausanne›. In 2009 he co-founded the production company ‹Bande à part Films› with Ursula Meier, Frédéric Mermoud and Jean-Stéphane Bron.
