A Film About Nice

The inspiration for this documentary film came from the City Symphony filmmakers of the early 20th Century. Artists such as Walter Ruttman, Joris Ivens, Jean Vigo and Dziga Vertov created dazzling vignettes of everyday activity in some of Europe’s great cities, including those of Berlin, Amsterdam, Nice and Odessa. Their aim was not to present ‘facts’ about a specific place, rather they aimed to capture the rhythm and mood of everyday life and use the expressive capabilities of the editing process to invigorate and bring alive the footage that they had captured.
Whereas these early films were silent, we have utilized sound as a further way of representing the atmosphere of a place. All the sounds used were recorded on location and they have been layered and sequenced in particular ways in order to show how one can hear, as well as see a place.
The 35 minute film was made in collaboration with Keith Marley of Liverpool John Moores University