For nearly a quarter of a century, the 1ère Marche de Troyes festival has been highlighting young directors of short films. A cinematic parenthesis coupled with an invitation to magic and living together in which young and old spectators can participate until May 13, 2022.
Alongside the screenings and the competition, the festival also lives to the rhythm of master classes and moments of sharing. Like this cine-concert around the films of Georges Méliès (1861-1938), entirely sung and set to music by 90 children and teenagers. When the master of special effects meets the ideas of the young people of 2022, the result is bound to be explosive.
Accompanied by an orchestra of professional musicians under the direction of pianist and composer Julien Tortora, children discover the magic of cinematography. A fully participatory creation that matured for a month. “We first worked on the emotion, we saw the films naked without any soundtrack and I asked them to work on the words and what they had felt”, says the musician. At the end of this sharing, he finds the little singers to create a new concert film based on nine films by Méliès. “It doesn’t seem like that but we created them, there’s rhythm, it moves, it makes us smile because these films personally I didn’t know them”, rejoice three young participants
The teenagers also made a few short films inspired by the world of Méliès. The opportunity to discover the art of telling a story with images and not words. “The special effects interested me a lot, to the naked eye it looks like it’s badly done but it’s already a good start”, smiles Ibtissa, student at the Jacobins college in Troyes
Sharing, passing on, being moved, the mission of the 1ère Marche festival has remained unchanged since its creation. The event allows a conversation between professionals and young people who have only one wish: to learn cinema trades. “There is a whole training area, a filmmaking internship: for us, it is to give the desire and the motivation around the cinema”assures Fabienne Barthélémy, director of the Festival 1ère marche.
This year, the program presents around fifty first short films by young directors under the age of thirty. And as with any self-respecting film festival, the week ends with the winners and the award ceremony on Friday May 13 at the CGR cinema in Troyes.
Festival 1ère Marche in Troyes from May 9 to 13, 2022. Free admission