In 1996, you made The least of it, documentary which also takes place in a psychiatric institution in France. How did your new film come about and why remake a work on a similar subject?
Because it is an inexhaustible subject and the people I have met touch me deeply. They are often hypersensitive people and, contrary to popular belief, very lucid. These patients are permeable to the aggressiveness of the world. They take his violence in the face! By meeting them closely, we realize that deep down, we are not so different from them… Moreover, in 1996, I made the film a little backwards. The idea of pointing a camera at people with mental disorders, in a weak situation, displeased me. Little by little, patients confronted me with my fears, my doubts, my scruples… And I wanted to repeat the experience by visiting Adamant, a center founded in 2010 on a boat moored on the Seine.
Based on what you have observed, would you say that the line between madness and normality is thin?
First, is there a border? I do not know. If there is one, this boundary is porous. It varies with societies, regimes and eras. A great Catalan psychiatrist, François Tosquelles, once said: “There are those who succeed in their madness… and those who do not. »
The Adamant is a calm place, a beautiful refuge on the water in the center of Paris, where all people take the time to listen to each other with kindness. Is it a place impervious to Parisian madness?
While crossing Paris to return home, after a day of filming, I said to myself as I saw the violent spectacle in the street: this city is completely crazy! The craziest ones aren’t always where you think they are.
Was the filming complicated?
The filming was improvised, with no plan in advance. It was spread over seven months, but I wasn’t there every day. Sometimes we were in a small team of three or four people. I often went there alone with my camera.
Did you take all this time to establish trust with patients?
Of course. First of all, you have to build a bond with these people. Above all, don’t force things. I film what people want to give. I always said: everyone can decide not to be filmed. A filmmaker must not abuse the power that the camera gives him. That said, I don’t try to blend into the landscape to make myself forgotten. The goal is not to “be forgotten”… but to “be accepted”. Being forgotten requires filming from a distance, almost without people knowing. On the Adamant is not a documentary about mental illness to explain madness. The subject of the film is all of us, our humanity. Basically, I make a cinema of encounters between people.
There is no implicit distinction between patients and caregivers in the film. For what ?
To differentiate the caring function from the status of caregiver. What is healing? It’s being attentive to others. A patient can have a caring function towards another patient.
I read that Adamant was designed in collaboration with patients, employees and a team of architects. Despite the success of the project, the future of this human approach to psychiatry is threatened, according to you. For what ?
Because we live in a world where money comes first. The steamroller of the economy is crushing a psychiatry based on relationships, listening, time. Because in today’s world, a schizophrenic is not profitable for society. We think that we shouldn’t spend too much money on people we can’t really cure…
PHOTO PROVIDED BY K-FILMS AMERICA
Scene from On the Adamant
It’s infinitely sad.
Well yes, but we have to face things. It is reality. Psychiatry suffers not only from a lack of beds and human resources, but also from a lack of attractiveness. If a nurse can no longer do his job with dignity, because he is overwhelmed by bureaucracy and paperwork, and he no longer has the time to build relationships with his patients, to organize workshops, then he go do something else.
On the Adamant received the Golden Bear in Berlin in February. Previously, only one documentary (Fuocoammare, by Gianfranco Rosi) had obtained this honor. Were you surprised by this price?
Yes very. I was already happy that my film was in competition. Often, at major festivals, documentaries are sidelined. It’s a great joy for me, but also for those who make artisanal, more fragile cinema. Documentary or fiction. And I am also happy for psychiatry.
In theaters Friday