This bold, politically charged film explores direct action against oppression through the life of a militant activist community in France.
2024 · 3h36m · France, Germany
Arabic, French
English subs
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About the Film
Direct action is a tactical strategy of protest that seeks to achieve an end directly and by the most effective means. DIRECT ACTION is a contemporary portrait of one of the most high-profile militant activist communities in France: a 150-person strong rural collective that successfully resisted an international airport expansion project in 2018, created an autonomous zone between 2012 and 2018, survived multiple violent eviction attempts by the French state and spawned a new ecological movement in 2021.
Using a collaborative and immersive observational approach, the film documents the everyday lives of a diverse ecosystem of activists, squatters, anarchists, farmers and those labelled by the government as “eco-terrorists”. Can the success of a radical protest movement offer a path through the climate crisis?
Upcoming Screenings
Festivals and Awards
2024
Cinéma du Réel Award, 2024 Winner
About the Director
Guillaume Cailleau
Guillaume Cailleau (France, 1978) is a Berlin-based artist, filmmaker
and film producer whose interest lies in exploring new forms to
address political and social issues. His films have been screened at film
festivals (Berlin, NY, Rotterdam, Edinburgh) and his work has been
exhibited in art institutions such as the Bangkok Art & Culture
Centre, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Haus der Kulturen der
Welt and the Centre Pompidou. In 2014, he won the Silver Bear
Jury Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival for his short
film Laborat. He produces films with his company CASKFILMS.
Direct Action is his first feature-length film.
Ben Russell
Ben Russell (USA, 1976) is a Marseille-based artist, filmmaker
and curator whose work lies at the intersection of ethnography and
psychedelia. Russell was an exhibiting artist at documenta 14 (2017)
and his work has been presented at the Centre Georges Pompidou, the
Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, the Museum of Modern
Art Chicago, the Venice Film Festival and the Berlinale, among others.
He is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (2008), a FIPRESCI
International Critics Prize (IFFR 2010, Gijón 2017), and premiered
his second and third feature films at the Locarno Film Festival (2013,
2017). DIRECT ACTION is his 5th feature-length film.
