Direct Action documents the everyday lives of one of the most high-profile militant activist communities in France and asks whether the success of a radical protest movement can offer a path through the climate crisis.
EN
“If you’ve never been to a place, it's quite difficult to know what lies ahead of you. Perhaps within the genre of fiction it is possible, since you're the one who's constructing everything. Otherwise, your job is to take account of what's there and be present. This has been my approach in my practice over the last twenty years: going to places, trying to initially spend time without filming anything so that I discover things that are interesting, and also things that I'm interested in, which are not always the same.”
Ben Russell1
“Direct Action is a superlative example of the daring kind of filmmaking the now-endangered Encounters strand was created to support; rather than telling a story, it describes a place. It insistently compels its viewer to consider the relationship between form and content, to reflect on directness and direction while delving into one of the most significant political struggles of contemporary Europe with disarming concreteness.”
Erika Balsom2
- 1Öykü Sofuoğlu, “Direct Action | Ben Russell, Guillaume Cailleau,” Filmexplorer, 10 April 2024.
- 2Erika Balsom, “The Party’s Over: Berlinale 2024,” Film Comment, 24 February 2024.