The principle was simple. Image’Est collected a selection of small silent film archives on various local subjects – textiles, skiing, the Vittel thermal baths, etc. – in connection with the bicentenary of photography. The idea was to “see a photographer on the screen,” noted Mathilde Gaulard, the BMI coordinator for this highlight of the Spinal festival celebrating cinema. Around these selected films, a team from BMI, including Pauline, Sophie, Laury, Anaïs, and Hélène, in collaboration with their coordinator, selected about a dozen texts that they read live over the animated images (12 films and 6 photographs), thus giving a new resonance to these images from another time.
From the song “La P’tite monnaie” by singer Benabar to “Souvenir de la marée basse” by Chantal Thomas, passing through “Les grandes vacances” by Robert Doisneau and Daniel Pennac, “Finistère” by Anne Berest, or even “Le Petit Nicolas” by Sempé, the audience was able to rediscover these precious archives in a new light, reinterpreted through the lens of literature and writings that echoed them. An original and enjoyable initiative, which should be repeated for the Heritage Days 2026 and during the collection of archival films by Image’Est. It speaks to the power of images and the words associated with them.
