Between February and July 2023, I was invited by Heart of Los Angeles and Centre Culturel Jean-Cocteau (Les Lilas, FR) to develop a collaborative documentary project with French-American artist Nelson Bourrec Carter. The Li.LA.s project invited two groups of teenagers to correspond from one side of the Atlantic to the other via video letters shot on their cell phones. From Les Lilas to Los Angeles, the participants (re)present their everyday lives, demystifying all preconceived ideas of both cities. Showing their surroundings, they reveal themselves through images as the gateway to an encounter that deconstructs the cliches that confine others as much as themselves.
The project culminated in an exhibition of the video letters and ephemera at Centre Culturel Jean-Cocteau in Les Lilas from July 6 to August 19, 2023, as well as a documentary short titled lilangeles (2023). The film was screened at le Cinéma du Garde-Chasse in Les Lilas (FR) on September 20th, 2023.
The project was supported by Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), Centre Culturel Jean-Cocteau (FR), Service Jeunesse, le Cinéma du Garde-Chasse, and le Conseil Départemental de Seine-Saint-Denis.