Tours 2018:
Filmmaking in France Program
David A. Gerstner
In 2018, we returned to Tours. As they had in 2016, our colleagues at Tours—including the university President, administrators, faculty, and students—were gracious and attentive to our needs as a filmmaking program. Given that the university is not a film school in the traditional sense, the folks in Tours went out of their way to accommodate us. Moreover, the faculty actively participated in our classroom by giving lectures (Valérie Vignaux and George-Claude Guilbert) while Nadine Michau taught critical camera techniques she had learned as a student of documentary filmmaker, Jean Rouch (another name, as you will see reappears)
Although non-CSI students traveled with us during the first trip (a professional filmmaker among them), we decided to reach beyond CSI and CUNY and invite a broad spectrum of students. We were delighted to have students join us from the University of Chicago, Southern Connecticut University, and Stanford University. We also decided, as a group, to try our hand at making a narrative film.
We had planned our program for 2020 but along came the pandemic. And that was that.
The next obstacle we encountered was a change in administration at the University of Tours during the pandemic. Although this was not necessarily a major concern, Mitchell, Stephen, and I decided we needed to change things up, to bring the program into a new direction. We realized we needed a more fully staffed and comprehensively sourced film-school environment. We also wished to move operations to Paris.
Once again, Stephen stepped up to the plate. While at a conference in Denver, he met two people from EICAR!—administrator, Yannick Tremblay and American filmmaker/scholar, John McNulty. Amazingly, Yannick and John were from the newly rejuvenated EICAR in Paris! Things had come full circle. EICAR, the school I visited in 2010, had since moved from St. Denis to just beyond the 13th arrondissement in Paris.
The facilities are remarkable. By joining forces with EICAR our program has access to top-notch film equipment, editing suites, one of the best screenings rooms I have encountered, and fully equipped classrooms. Now in Paris, the program took on a new life. And the program expanded into a new direction.
2020:
Another Summer Suspended,
Switch to Paris