Quiet moments are rare in this energetic film, bearing witness to the precarious reality of life experienced by France’s immigrant communities. Amongst moments of celebration – convivial scenes of shared meals, a parade or a marriage – we see moments of resistance. Blurred figures at protests in support of Palestine and against US Military presence in Okinawa remind us that our collective struggles for liberation are entangled. Through the film’s fast cuts and frenetic energy, Barouh conjures the gentle and surprising chaos life is composed of.

~ Myriam Mouflih

Amie Barouh creates an experimental documentary giving voice to those at the margin of society. ‘Film diary’ provides the foundation for her work as does the idea that all knowledge is subjective. Driven more by affinity than dogma to ‘make a film’, the video of Barouh, between documentaries and visual essays, aims first to transmit an experience, lived as it is. The search of right proximity with those who she films gives constant tension to Barouh’s work. The camera, the third eye and arm of the artist, negotiates the nature of the relations in real-time that she, as a documentary artist but as a person before anything else, maintains with her subjects. Presentation and subjective editing espouse her heartbeat where impressionistic or realistic images originate, reconstructing the full complexity of documenting the world to which we do not belong.

Julie Akermann shortened and translated by the gallery Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix

Shuruuk (2024), Okinawa (2023), Bari Mageia (2022), Contrechant(2022), Lost Dog (2021), I can change, but not 100% (2019), Square Alban.S (2019), Melinda et George (2017)