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Draft:Vincent Moon

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Vincent Moon

Vincent Moon, born Mathieu Saura on August 25, 1979 in Paris, is a French independent film director specializing in the creation of musical films.

From 2006 to 2009, he was the principal director of La Blogothèque's Take Away Shows, a project designed exclusively for the Internet of music films in situ, most often on location, devoted to indie-rock music as well as to better-known musical projects such as R.E.M., Tom Jones and Arcade Fire. From 2009 to 2013, Vincent Moon travels the world with a camera in his backpack, for his collection Petites Planètes, documenting religious rituals, sacred music and local folklore. He works alone or with the sole assistance of local people, and most of the time with no money committed to his projects, trying to produce his films without following the established patterns of the film industry. He shares all his work, films and musical recordings, free of charge on the Internet, under a Creative Commons license.

Biography

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Preliminary experiments (2000-2005)

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Growing up in Paris, Vincent Moon studied photography for three years at the Atelier Reflexe in Montreuil, where he met photographers Michael Ackerman and Antoine d'Agata, both of whom had a major influence on his work. Working as a photographer during this period, he developed the habit of setting his photos in motion, projecting his work in the form of slideshows set to music. In 2003, he created the photographic blog Les Nuits de Fiume, documenting the Parisian nightlife, especially its concerts.

He created his first films in 2005, after discovering the work of experimental filmmakers Peter Tscherkassky and Stephen Dwoskin, releasing short films mixing intimate narration and technical experimentation, from super8 to phone cameras. Vincent Moon quickly developed a passion for the Internet and the possibilities of publishing his work for free. Getting closer to music, he met the American band The National at one of their concerts in Paris, and their friendship led to various projects, with his photos being used for the cover of the band's third album, Alligator. He also directed two music videos for them, Daughters of the Soho Riots and Lit Up. At the same time, he initiated other music-related projects, creating music videos for Clogs, Sylvain Chauveau and Barzin.

The Take Away Shows (2006-2009)

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In 2006, inspired by the film Step Across The Border about English musician Fred Frith, and driven by a desire to record music in a more creative way, he and Christophe Chryde Abric founded the Concerts à emporter / Take Away Shows, La Blogothèque's video podcast. TheTake Away Shows are a series of improvised outdoor video sessions with musicians in unexpected situations, published free of charge on the Internet. In four years, they managed to film over 200 videos with bands such as R.E.M., Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, Tom Jones, Beirut, Grizzly Bear, Sigur Ròs and many others, always in the rock and pop music genre, mainly focusing on North American musicians. Vincent Moon perfects his style here: an immediately recognizable intimacy, always in long, dancing frames, often filmed in a single, unrehearsed take.

The Take Away Shows quickly attracted a huge audience, with The New York Times newspaper describing its impact: « Vincent Moon reinvented the music video »[1]. A new generation of young directors around the world recognize the influence of the concept, its organic approach to music. A 2010 study[2] showed that over 100 film projects on the net were directly inspired by La Blogothèque's Take Away Shows.

The musical industry, in and out (2007-2010)

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Following the success of La Blogothèque's project, numerous more established artists asked Vincent Moon to work on longer films. Most of these projects became new explorations of the relationship between music and cinema, and radical attempts to challenge the established formats of music films.

After a controversial first attempt with the long-format film-essay A Skin, a Night, considered too experimental by fans of The National, Moon collaborated with Michael Stipe and R.E.M.on the release of their album Accelerate, co-directing with French director Jeremiah. The results explore the possibilities of digital storytelling with six days and ninety nights, a 45-minute experimental film made from the same footage. These ideas are echoed in R.E.M.'s Supernatural Superserious music video, which uses the internet in a new way for the music industry. Their collaboration continues with This is not a show, a film about the American band's Dublin concerts in summer 2007. Similar projects from this period include a film with the band Beirut in collaboration La Blogothèque, called Cheap Magic Inside (2008, 60 min). Filmed on the streets of Brooklyn, this one hour single experimental shot feature the 12 songs of Beirut's new album The Flying Club Cup.

En 2008, Vincent Moon was the main creator of the movie Miroir noir, following the band The Arcade Fire on tour, but he lost the lead of the final cut of the film. For this reason, he refused to be credited as director.

From 2005 to 2009, he documented events at All Tomorrow's Parties, an independant music festival in England. His shots are gathered in the movie All Tomorrow's Parties (2009, 90 min.) co-directed by Jonathan Caouette, which received high praise from the media. In parallel, Vincent Moon published a series of seven experimental films about the festival on the Internet, free of charge, under the title From ATP: complete series.

In November 2008, Vincent Moon travelled to Prague to document the work of Havlovi, a couple of musicians who dedicated their lives to their instrument, the ancient viola da gamba. The result, Little Blue Nothing (2009, 50 min.) has been screened in numerous cities around the world, and is released in 2014 as a limited edition DVD.

Vincent Moon and cellist Gaspar Claus set sail for Tokyo in March 2009 to film poet, musician and painter Kazuki Tomokawa. The resulting film La Faute des fleurs won the Sound & Vision prize at the CPH Dox documentary film festival in Denmark[3].

In April 2009, he organizes and recorded a concert by singer Lhasa de Sela in Montréal, to promote her new album. This concert was Lhasa's last in Canada, as the singer passed away a few months later. This film has since been published online, and will be complemented in 2020 by a biographical film on the artist, entitled Going In, edited from images taken back then. Later in April 2009, Vincent Moon also worked with scottish post-rock band Mogwai, recording their performance in New York. The result is Burning, a 50-minutes film about the concert, co-directed by Nathanael Le Scouarnec.

During 2009, Vincent Moon began to explore other approaches and techniques to filming music, moving away from the Take Away Shows and setting up his own blog Les Nuits de Fiume, where he began to write ideas about media, culture and creation in the 21st century.

His last project in the field of rock music is An Island, recorded in August 2010 with and for the Danish band Efterklang on their island, Als. The film was released exclusively on the internet in January 2011, pioneering a new method of film distribution called private-public screenings: people wishing to see the film have to organize their own screening, which has to be public. The massive success of the initiative (over 50,000 viewers watched the film at 1,200 screenings worldwide between February and March 2011) sets a new standard for online cinema.[4].

Exploring the world of sounds (2009-2013)

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In December 2008, Vincent Moon left Paris and most of his work behind to explore new horizons. He moved away from La Blogothèque quite quickly, although he continued to contribute a few films from time to time, and decided to start his new nomadic label, the Petites Planètes collection. With this new project, he explores and records traditional music, religious rituals and studies the relationship between music and trance on five continents. These « experimental ethnography » films[5] constitute a clear shift away from his previous work on the alternative and indie scenes.

The Petites Planètes collection is entirely funded by donations to his website[6], and by screenings and workshops around the world. Rejecting traditional professionalism in favor of 21st-century amateurism, Vincent Moon collaborates with local creators and young talents worldwide, tirelessly questioning established visual representations of the “other”.

Towards the sacred (2014…)

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At the turn of 2014, after five years of traveling, Vincent Moon changed his way of living and working to explore another subject more deeply: the renewal of the sacred in our generation. The first project of that period is a multimedia adventure from which a feature-length film, Hibridos, will emerge. Shot in Brazil with explorer and filmmaker Priscilla Telmon, the country's diverse religions, from Afro-Brazilian beliefs to more recent syncretic cults, weaving a complex idea of the place of humans and spirits in the accelerated pace of today's world. Together, they set up the production company Petites Planètes[7],[8], collaborating as independent filmmakers and sound explorers.

Filmography

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Short films

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Short movies

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Television

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Séries télévisées

TV movies
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Director

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Cinema

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Short movies

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Television

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Série télévisée
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Editor

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Cinema

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Television

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TV series
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Cinema

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Screenwriter

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Cinema

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Short movies

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References

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  1. ^ Lizzy Goodman, Lizzy Goodman (19 juin 2011). "The Video Explorer". The New-York Times Magazine: 44. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Anne-Marie (2017). "Les concerts à emporter". Fréquence Sud (in French). Retrieved 14 décembre 2024. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  3. ^ "CPH:DOX Awards 2009". Det Danske Filminstitut. 2009. Retrieved 14 décembre 2024. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  4. ^ Jane Park (26 mai 2011). "1,200 screenings of CC-licensed documentary "An Island"". creativecommons.org. Retrieved 14 décembre 2024. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= and |date= (help)
  5. ^ Jeanne Lecaille (2 décembre 2022). "« D'une cérémonie à l'autre, j'ai fini par comprendre que la musique est la première des médecines » (Vincent Moon)". Radio Nova (in French). Retrieved 14 décembre 2024. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= and |date= (help)
  6. ^ Petites Planètes. "Soutenez". Petites Planètes (in French). Retrieved 14 décembre 2024. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  7. ^ "Petites Planètes - Home". petitesplanetes.earth (in French). Retrieved 2023-09-05.
  8. ^ "TERRITOIRES, une exploration des musiques traditionnelles de France". France Musique. 18-02-2023. Retrieved 17-11-2023. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= and |date= (help).
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