Be Seeing You

synopsis

Marker and Marret filmed interviews with workers and trade unionists at the Rhodiacéta textile factory in Besançon in December 1967, nine months after the major strike that led to the factory’s takeover. This retrospective account of the workers’ awakening during the strike and their discovery of a common voice is framed by the present, in which management is halving bonuses and making staff redundant. Part of the film was created from footage shot by the workers themselves on 8mm cameras. The unhurried conversation is complemented by a visual study of the faces and gestures of these courageous young men, snippets from the strike, and sparse narration by the filmmakers. The film is permeated by solidarity and the opportunity for self-expression, which was transformed into a replicable organisational model after the work was released.

During a discussion with the workers that followed the screening in Besançon, criticism was voiced: it was claimed that the portrayal was dominated by complaints rather than the articulation of a concrete programme, and that it neglected the work of women and the trade union activities preceding the strike. The filmmakers’ response was that militant cinema can only emerge from collaboration with worker-filmmakers. The creators trained twenty of them, giving rise to the Medvedkin groups, which by 1974 had made a dozen films set in their own working environments. In their hands, cinema became a tool for self-liberation.

biography

Chris Marker (1921–2012) was a film essayist. His La jetée (1962) is a photo-novel consisting of a single moving shot. Far from Vietnam (1967), which he coordinated, and Be Seeing You (1968) confirmed his interest in the revolutionary power of film and collective authorship. In the film A Grin Without a Cat (1977), Marker revisits the wildcat strikes of 1967, including those in Besançon. Ji.hlava IDFF presented a retrospective of his work in 2007 and, five years later, co-published David Čeněk’s monograph Chris Marker.

Mario Marret (1920–2000) was a trained locksmith, radio operator in the resistance, polar explorer, filmmaker, anarchist and, ultimately, psychoanalyst. He picked up a camera by chance whilst on an Antarctic expedition. He made films about passing the winter in Adélie Land and the struggle for liberation in Portuguese Guinea. As part of the Medvedkin groups, he trained workers to use film equipment.

film details

director:	Chris Marker, Mario Marret
producer:	SLON - ISKRA