Chloé Galibert-Laîné

Forensickness

 Forensickness

 

A desktop diary inspired by Chris Kennedy’s Watching the Detectives

 
 
 
 

The film shifts into a thrilling drift between computer screens and cinema, from one regime of images to the other, when the filmmaker begins to question the truths of one and the other, as if to better expose the viewer's belief. It's jubilant, like the shady encounter of a webcam and an amateur film on an editing table.

Alice Leroy (Cahiers du Cinéma)

This immensely intelligent, entertaining and visually attractive study on the pleasures of production and the relativity of knowledge, composed entirely on the computer screen, proved once again the tremendous talent and wit of its young French director, who is rightly considered one of the most exciting authors working in the field of desktop documentary.

Ejla Kovačević (Ultra Dogme)

As an exercise in critical examination of government propaganda and internet conspiracy-mongering, Forensickness is a valuable companion to Kennedy’s short, and this diptych seems unfortunately destined to be a key text of the era.

Vadim Rizov (Filmmaker Magazine)

A detective comedy mixing Gombrovicz's "Cosmos", Jacques Rancière, Reddit and online conspiracy theories, which untangles the processes of hermeneutics with both humor and a fearsome intelligence. Chloé Galibert-Laîné brilliantly succeeds in a work combining research and creation, and makes the whole thing jubilant.

Ysé Sorel (I/O Gazette)

 
 

Synopsis:

In an attempt to analyse Chris Kennedy's 'Watching the Detectives', a researcher dives into a massive archive of media produced after the Boston attacks. Her online wanderings offer a performative exploration of the history of critical thinking and the ruthless politics of truth production.

Festival Screenings and awards:

  • FIDMarseille 2020 (France) - Special Mention in the French Competition and Special Mention in the CNAP Competition

  • Festival International du Film Indépendant de Bordeaux 2020 (France) - “Contrebande” competition

  • Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival 2020 (Czechia) - “Opus Bonum” competition

  • Festival dei Popoli 2020 (Italy) - International Competition

  • Kasseler Dokfest 2020 (Germany) - nominated for the Golden Key award

  • Caminhos do Cinema Português 2020 (Portugal)

  • Melboune International Documentary Film Festival 2020 (Australia) - Video essay competition

  • Journées de Soleure - Solothurner Filmtage 2021 (Switzerland)

  • Rencontres Internationales Sciences et Cinéma 2021 (France)

  • Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival USA (USA)

  • Docudays UA Human Rights Documentary Film Festival 2021 (Ukraine)

  • Images Festival 2021 (Canada)

  • We Make Movies International Film Festival 2021 (USA)

  • Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival 2021 (USA)

  • IndieLisboa 2021 (Portugal) - Director’s Cut selection

  • First Look Festival 2021 (USA)

  • Côté Court 2021 (France) - “Art vidéo” competition

  • transmediale 2021 (Germany)

  • Beijing International Short Film Festival 2021 (China)

  • VI Internationational Film Seminar at Tabakalera (Spain)

  • Interférences Festival 2021 (France)

  • Comité du Film Ethnographique - Festival international Jean Rouch 2021 (France)

  • Paradoks - GegenKino in Leipzig (Germany)

Interviews about the film:

Reviews of the film:

Introduction to the film:


This film was produced in the context of my doctoral research project about “Netnographic Cinema”, conducted in the art-research program SACRe (Ecole normale supérieure de Paris / PSL University) under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Dork Zabunyan (Université Paris 8) and Antoine de Baecque (ENS Paris).