GAËL MOREL, FILM MAKER
Photo : @Nicolas BARET 2007
Gaël Morel grew up in Beaujolais, in a working-class family. From childhood he was fascinated by cinema, actresses and in particular by Catherine Deneuve. He first thought of a career in theatre direction but quickly turned to film making, convinced that “film directors are the basis of everything”.
This «everything» explains why today he prefers the word filmmaker, author who conceives makes and accompanies his work. The term «filmmaker» embodies the recognition of the work of artistic creation and is more appropriate than that of director.
At 18, member of a youth jury at the Festival de Cannes, he meets André Téchiné, who will cast him in the lead role of his film “Wild Reeds” ( “Les Roseaux Sauvages “) in 1994. Thereafter, he will play very little, for Téchiné essentially, because he admires him, and will devote himself to film making.
Closely linked to Elodie Bouchez and Stéphane Rideau, his partners in Wild Reeds, he chooses Stéphane Rideau for the leading role of his first short film, La Vie à Rebours (1994) but also for the first long one A toute Vitesse (Full Speed) (1996). Portraying a tormented youth, the film is presented in Cannes, in the category Cinemas in France.
After a TV movie made for the channel Arte, Première Neiges, he left for Algeria to shoot his second opus, Les Chemins de L’oued (Toronto international critic award in 2002), a reflection on identity disorder and political unrest. With Le Clan (Three Dancing Slaves) (2004), he pictures a state of the modern male condition.
For his fourth feature film, Après lui, a film about mourning presented at the Directors’ Fortnight in 2007, Gaël Morel directed “his idol” Catherine Deneuve.
In 2008, Arte broadcast his second TV movie, produced in 2007, New Wave with Beatrice Dalle, that has just been freely adapted by André Téchiné and Celine Sciamma (When you’re 17). In 2011, he produced Notre Paradis (Our Paradise) the story of a male prostitute at the end of his career, Vassili, who assassinates his customers. His youth, and especially his downfall, is at the heart of this film.
Gael morel has currently returned to the cinema sets. For his sixth film, Prendre le large (Catch The Wind), the filmmaker chose Sandrine Bonnaire to play Edith, 45, a worker in a textile factory whose life is turned upside down by a social plan.
 Sarah Bordji, élève de l’option cinéma
Passionate about cinema for a long time, I am very enthusiastic at the idea of being part of the jury of clap 89 this year. My interest in cinema has enabled me to carry out an internship at the French film library (Cinémathèque) during junior school and consider making it my job in the years to come as a director. I have beside taken a specialization in cinema at my high school, Lycée JANOT. I particularly like genre cinema and Japanese independent cinema. I am therefore very keen on atypical films, part of an unconventional and transgressive cinema. Shinya Tsukamoto or David Lynch, for example, are directors that I admire. I don’t really have a favorite movie, but one of the movies that has marked me the most is Sion Sono’s Love Exposure. |
| Romain le Bonnieci, director of photography
Romain Le Bonniec began his career learning the light by exercising the job of chief electrician on films such as Réussir sa Vie by Benoît Forgeard, Minuscule by Thomas Szabo and Hélène Giraud (César Award for Best Animated Feature), The Forbidden room by Guy Maddin or Diamant Noir by Arthur Harari (Cesar-nominated). |
 Nicolas Marié, actor
Nicolas began his career in theater, in different registers, from Shakespeare to Mishima and has played alongside Jean Poiret and Muriel Robin. Television rapidly offered him a variety of very different roles: Simenon, Maupassant, Martin du Gard, and the whole cohort of what makes TV creation. He lately interpreted the French president alongside Carole Bouquet in Les Hommes de l’ombre and played opposite Michèle Bernier in La Stagiaire. The Cinema calls on him, We find him in 40 films including Micmacs à Tire-Larigot by Jean-Pierre Jeunet or 99 frs by Yan Kounen. He appears in all the films by his friend Albert Dupontel and will soon be playing with Omar Sy in a cinematographic adaptation of Roman Jules’ play, Knock. |
| Stéphane Rideau, actor
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Ariane Séguillon, actress
Ariane Séguillon pursued drama studies at the Florent, Simon and Périmony schools. She alternates theater, cinema, television, and writing. In 1998, she is a ADAMI hopeful talent in the comedians category for her role in Laurent Bouhnik’s film. She works for the cinema alongside Sophie Marceau, (Parlez-moi d’amour), Bernard Stora (Une preuve d’amour) and Olivier Dahan (Grace de Monaco). She also played in tv movies such as Le Sang de la Vigne or Tiger Lily, series that was awarded the Grand Prix at the TV fiction festival of La Rochelle. In 2016 Ariane came back on stage for the play by Eric Assous Représailles. She is currently starring on Amanda Sther’s new film Madame, screenwriter for whom Ariane had played a role in the play Thalasso. Multiple-talented Ariane also went on stage for a one-woman-show she played 3 times a week for 3 months, a great experience she would like to renew. |
 Ginnie Watson, actress
Ginnie Watson is a French-English actress working in both languages and in all areas of the world of entertainment. She took the Viriot course in Paris, the Acting in English classes at the Florent school, the international school of screen acting but also the Academy of Music (lyrical chant, music theory, piano). In 2010, she wrote and directed her first short film Shag Women Senseless. She navigates between theatre (The Pearl And The Vestment, Holiday Romance, Rose Bonbon, Les Gladiateurs), cinema (Dépression et des Potes by Arnaud Lemort, Comme Un Chef by Daniel Cohen, Astérix and Obélix : au service de sa majesté by Laurent Tirard, L’un dans l’autre by Bruno Chiche and Madame, Amanda Sthers’s last movie), but also publicity, short movies, voice-overs and singing (Ginnie Watson’s Sings). |
