June Balthazard
La rivière Tanier - Film - 17min - 2017
présenté dans le cadre de l'exposition panorama 19
My grandmother is a mystery. Since she lost her memory, simply evoking this makes bodies stiffen. What does Marie Lourdes hide from us in her heavy silence? Suddenly, tongues start wagging. Talking about her, her family conjure up the past, exorcising suffering through laughter, vital laughter.
This animated documentary starts from a black spot, a family secret. With an approach similar to engraving, it borrows the archaeology of the gesture, which consists of digging, of revealing. This exploration is that of earthworms, deep within the oceans that harbour Creole identity. It is also the tale, like they exist in every family, of life and disappearance.
June Balthazard
Born in France in 1991, June Balthazard studied simultaneously at the Institut supérieur des beaux-arts (isba) in Besançon and at the Haute École d’art et de design (head) in Geneva (department of Cinema/Cinema of the Real).
She has made several short films which are grounded in the real and at the same time break free of it. Her work has been shown in exhibitions such as “Les liaisons équivoques” at the Musée des beaux-arts in Dole, at the “Special Sessions” of the frac Franche-Comté as well as at festivals, notably Visions du réel in Nyon, where she won the Opening Scene prize in 2018.
