‘COLLECTIF C4’

In the presence of Jean-Marie Vervisch, Richard Kalisz and Denise Vindevogel.

In 1967, three students from the INSAS (Institut national supérieur des arts du spectacle et des techniques de diffusion, Brussels) were expelled for impertinence and challenging what they were told. The class immediately displayed its solidarity with them and came up with a group film which illustrated what had gone on in the school. This film would constitute their end of year exercise. 

"This film, made between October 1967 and March 1968 reveals two important characteristics. First and foremost it’s a collective creation, as opposed to a series of individual sketches brought together under the same title, as is usually the case, but a work in which the role of each participant, be it in relation to the preparation of the screenplay, cutting or production, is impossible to determine, as everything was rigorously done as a group. What’s more, it’s a work of fiction but it stages the director’s own problems, and it’s surprising to see, just a few months before May 1968, to what extent the problems which came to light already existed in a latent form amongst the students, and not just in relation to intellectual approaches but even forms of action. You can already see the break with the education they had received, the refusal to integrate in society, the hardening in relation to any attempt at recovery, followed by violence, solitude and failure... The insider account it provides of what happens when you challenge the status quo and the conditions in which it was made mean that, in our opinion, it is a truly exceptional document …" (Annie Goldmann, Cinéma et Société Moderne, 1971)