In Carcassonne, the documentary fiction festival highlights youth and social photography

This is the photo event not to be missed in Carcassonne (Aude). The documentary fiction festival opens its doors on November 15 and continues until December 17, 2022. A sixth edition that gives pride of place to social photography and young generations.

France 3 Languedoc-Roussillon : M. Bonfils / F. Guibal

For its sixth edition, the programming of Fictions Documentaires is mainly female, it tackles current affairs and social issues. Eight photographers from around the world present their work. Among them the Estonian Annika Haas presents the series The Greenhouse Effect. These intimate shots tell a certain vision of the youth of Estonia in the face of environmental issues. “They are between 18 and 30 years old and they express themselves on what it makes them to know what they will live in a world which is deteriorating little by little”, explains Mathilde Alsina, coordinator of the GRAPh.

A committed youth who also carry modern ideas, captured by photographer Stéphanie Nelson with her series No one lights up the night. In 2020, she meets a new generation of Senegalese, determined to move the lines. His diptychs, drawn in a dark gray, illustrate testimonies between dreams and disillusions. Four weeks of lively discussions enliven Stéphanie Nelson’s meeting with the youth of Kédougou. “There was the question of tradition and modernity, the question of social injustices, a soil very rich in gold whose population does not see the color”, she explains.

Series “No one lights up the night” by Nathalie Nelson (Nathalie Nelson)

The photographers Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige expose their vision of a fragmented Beirut. Series Objects of Khiam, looks like a set of postcards from the Lebanese capital available to visitors. A journey that is both artistic, photographic, cinematographic and participatory, which invites the viewer to live an extraordinary experience between fiction and reality.

Objects of Khiam series by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreig (Joana Hadjithomas et Khalil Joreig)

See also the work of Ymane Fakhir, Marianne and Katarzyna Wasowska, Tiphaine Populu de la Forge and Line Sagnes. All exhibitions are presented in seven locations in Carcassonne.

Documentary fiction is regarding taking hold of a social fact and dealing with it through image and art. A still little-known photographic genre that uses metaphor, staging, symbol, collage to appropriate a current issue. A process bordering on photojournalism. “Photojournalism will show us something and sometimes, seeing too much, we miss it, we no longer want to see, we close our eyes”, notes Éric Sinatora, director of the festival

The common denominator of these photographic works of documentary fiction is the artist’s gaze, through which everything is played out. “We first see a creative work, something that surprises us and then the message gets through”, complete once more Eric Sinatora.

Série “The Lion Share” d’Ymane Fakhir (Ymane Fakhir)

Festival of Documentary Fiction in Carcassonne until December 17, 2022