More and more careful, more and more audacious, the music videos, main vehicles of the artists’ imagination, do everything possible to attract the eye and hold the ear. While they are now designed as true miniature blockbusters, seeing these spectacular scenes, sometimes filled with special effects, on the big screen is the best way to do them justice. This is what the TEMA festival offers! which expects 450 people for its fifth edition this Thursday, June 9 from 7 p.m. at the MK2 Library.
For the first time, the four organizers of the festival have decided to devote an entire edition to a musical genre, rap, which dominates in France in terms of views and streaming. A genre whose visual production is exponential, as it offers, with social networks, the most effective way for artists to reach their audience, to the point of allowing them to often do without the sounding board of the media.
In a few years, have the organizers of the festival noticed any changes in the production of music videos? “While the first edition of TEMA! had highlighted the lack of resources of music video directors, they now benefit from greater funding, production companies are less cautious and there are more opportunities for them“, remarks Margaux Deslandes, co-founder of the event. “Previously, making a music video was giving yourself a business card to access the world of cinema“, she continues. “But I have the impression that the clip is no longer seen as a simple stepping stone: we feel a real desire among directors to take an interest in the relationship between music and visual.”
A breakthrough by French clippers internationally is also emerging: “French know-how seems to be exported: Rosalia recently called on Valentin Petit for her music video Saoko which shows her on a motorcycle with her band of girls, for example. At the festival, we present the clip of Kanye West Heaven and Hell directed by Frenchman Arnaud Bresson. We can’t wait to find out how he ended up making the music video for this international heavyweight.“
On the Thursday menu, a selection of 14 clips, including the vertiginous Slide directed by Scotty Simper for Sopico, in which the rapper turns into a stuntman and walks horizontally on the wall of a skyscraper (the Pleyel tower in Saint-Denis), AD signed Guillaume Doubet for the return of the rapper Shay in sensual futuristic mode, the violently anxiety-provoking Fury directed by Dante Palma for Django or the inventive special effects of Balrog sign Yoann Stehr and Alice Khol for Belgian rapper Shaka Shams.
Overall, the theme is rather dark, apart from the romantic and solar Casino from Yagooz to Disiz. “Indeed the programming is not happy this year“, recognizes Margaux Deslandes. “But French rap is tinged with dark themes at the moment, such as police violence and mental health“, she justifies. As for the absence of women, both in front of and behind the camera, it is obvious. Parity? “As four organizers, we are particularly attached to this. But we had to sacrifice it for this edition”she admits.
“We wanted to give a realistic overview of the current rap audiovisual landscape and concerning the representation of women, we are not there. It’s a real question that we are going to ask: why are there so few women in all the rap professions? This year we have only one director and on the artists side only two rappers. However, #MeToo has been there and we find more feminist and inclusive themes than before, with great things and different universes that do not fit the reductive and often sexist idea that we have of the rap clip. .”
Because this festival also aims to be a platform for meetings between directors, producers, artists and technicians, representatives of all these professions are expected to discuss the clips scheduled and answer questions from the public on stage. The evening is divided into two parts of one hour each: the first shows that rap is political while being a mirror of everyday life, while the second looks at the transformation of the body, the magic and the diversion of the codes of the clip of classic rap.
The evening is hosted by Théodore Cohen, founder of the rap media NewTone, and by Sandra Da Conceicao Gomes, photographer and artistic director. It is followed from 10 p.m. by an “After” at EP7, the digital guinguette, with DJ Rachedi on the decks until 2 a.m.
Note that the posthumous clip of rapper Nepal, Sundancesigned Syrine Boulanouar with Nekfeu on screen, will be the subject of a separate conversation, where must be addressed “with delicacy and respect” the question of the posthumous clip.
The complete programming of the projected clips:
Kanye West – Heaven and Hell directed by Arnaud Bresson
sopico – Slide directed by Scotty Simper
Shay – AD directed by Guillaume Doubet
Ninho – morning problems by Ugo Mangin
Lala &ce – Toxic directed by Baeby Mama
Captain Roshi – Molotov produced by Bleu Nuit TV
Anta – Kawat III directed by Julien Jardin
Gasoline – Inhuman directed by Rosemary (Jonas & Tinoki)
Django – Fury directed by Dante Palma
Eden Dillinger – Hawaiian shirt directed by Julius On The Wave
Disiz – Casino directed by Yagooz
Nepal – Sundance directed by Syrine Boulanouar
Clip call selection
Shaka Shams – Balrog co-directed by Yoann Stehr and Alice Khol
Olazermi – Phone Game directed by Léo Joubert
TEMA-Festival! at MK2 Library (Paris 13th)
Thursday June 9, 2022 from 7:30 p.m. (reservation recommended, doors open at 7 p.m.)
Prices : 12.90 € and 4.90 € for under 26s
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