Putting the Camera in the Workers’ Hands: Precarious Practice and Aesthetics in Recent French Documentary

Abstract

The practice of workers filming their own conditions has long existed within the sphere of political documentary. At times this has sparked fierce debate, as for instance in the cultures of Cinéma Militant in France. Some filmmakers saw the practice as a naïve form of workerism that led to reactionary films, while others argued that it had revolutionary potential. Such polarised and dogmatic debates have long since subsided, and in the present era, the boundaries between worker and filmmaker are frequently blurred or non-existent, as self-filmed documentary responses to the upheavals of contemporary work are increasingly common. The current article analyses two work-centred films which were produced on very limited budgets and make significant use of self-filming: Le Kiosque (Alexandra Pianelli, 2020) and La Base (Vadim Dumesh, 2023). I draw upon original interviews with filmmakers and close readings of the films to question the potentialities of self-filming work in the current conjuncture. Avoiding deterministic arguments, I draw connections between these filmmaking practices and the aesthetics they imply, the different types of work depicted, and the broader situation of the precarious present. This constitutes a significant insight into the politics of a prevalent practice which remains under-examined in academic discourse.