May 25, 2012

This Day in Indie History: Michel Gondry

by MovieMaker Staff | Published May 7, 2007

To most people, Michel Gondry, born on this day in 1963, is most recognizable as the director of 2004â€™s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. But his surrealistic work began long before that Jim Carrey/Kate Winslet vehicle played to mass audiences. And it continues today with smaller, more personal films like The Science of Sleep, which he explained to MM in Fall 2006, was a â€œvery personalâ€ journey for him. Born in Versailles, France, Gondry learned early on to appreciate the narrative nature of music. It was within this medium that the artist first made an impact, directing music videos for The White Stripes, Beck and others. His first feature, Human Nature, written by Charlie Kaufman, was a minor success, gearing the pair up for their Academy Award-winning, mind-bending Eternal Sunshine. Next up for the French moviemaker is 2008â€™s Be Kind Rewind, about a man who must recreate all manner of favored films when he accidentally destroys his friendâ€™s video store stock.

Quotable: â€œWhen you have a mixture of things going on in your life and all around you, that gets filtered through your imagination (to me, thatâ€™s what a dream does) it generates a lot of original imagery. So when Iâ€™m working on a music video or a film, I try to recycle what I see in my mind as much as possible. I like the way that something youâ€™ve seen on the street on the way to work will suddenly show up 10 times larger or 10 times smaller or in a totally different color.â€ â€”Michel Gondry, â€œRequiem for a Dreamerâ€ by David Fear, MovieMaker Volume 13, Issue 64.

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Comment by Jeevika on 5/08/07 at 1:26 am

Jeevika: South Asia Documentary Festival, which began in 2003, aims at capturing the livelihood challenges faced by the rural and urban poor and bringing it to the attention of current and future policy makers. Over the years, Jeevika has been successful in advocating for the cause of numerous entry-level entrepreneurs - rickshaw pullers, street vendors, prostitutes, child labour, farmers and forest-dwellers.

The premier event of the festival to be held at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi will be the awards ceremony from 20-23rd July 2007, which will culminate four days of screening for the top films. The last date for the submitting the entries is May 31, 2007

In addition as part of the festival tour, the award-winning films will travel and be screened in premier schools and colleges in over 20 states in India and other organisations working on livelihood issues as well as in our South Asian neighbours.

Over the years, Jeevika has become an increasingly popular and news-worthy event as well as an important catalyst for positive social change. The Film-makers whose films have been showcased in the past include Rakesh Sharma (of the Final Solution fame), Sanjay Barnela (Turf Wars) and Shohini Ghosh (Tales of the Night Fairies).

For further details, please log on: http://www.ccs.in/jeevika
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