Naïs Van Laer

Naïs Van Laer trained at the National School of Fine Arts in Valence and then in Lyon for five years until 2008 under the tutelage of documentary filmmaker Olivier Zabat. She has made several short documentaries with a strong social and artistic commitment, some of which were screened at the Géométries Virtuelles festival in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in 2010.

For two years, until February 2011, she directed her first documentary film, "Tiers-Paysage", immersing herself in the daily life of a Roma family between France and Romania, which won the first prize at the Rencontres du Cinéma Européen de Vannes and the Citizen's Film Prize at the Ecollywood Festival in 2012.

Passionate about the humanities, she develops collaborations with researchers from different disciplines (sociology, social geography, sociolinguistics) in order to promote interdisciplinarity and create films anchored in a singular questioning.

She also works as a cameraman on other directors' projects and is involved in the dissemination of creative documentaries by programming Pommes Sauvages, an association that hosts filmmakers in writing residencies and organises evenings dedicated to documentary films and music.

Filmography

Vivre avec son Œil, 53 minutes. Produced by SaNoSi Productions.

Tiers-Paysage, 52 minutes. Documentary film made in collaboration with the sociologist Yasmine Bouagga. Produced by Les Films de l'Arrosoir.

Made with a Roma family living in a shanty town in Montpellier, Tiers-Paysage questions the place of the margins and its inhabitants. Through the seasons, the daily life of this family unfolds, between scrap metal, begging, going back and forth to Romania, moments of anxiety and moments of joy. Three generations of women who live in these precarious shacks weave the thread of their stories while, behind them, the cranes extend the hold of the city. Third landscape" refers to third state (not third world). Space expressing neither power nor submission to power." (Gilles Clément, Manifeste du Tiers paysage)

Distribution: International Mediterranean Film Festival 2011, PointDoc Festival 2012, Les Rencontres du Cinéma Européen de Vannes 2012 (first prize), Drom'Festival des Cultures Nomades 2012, Festival Écollywood 2012 (citizen film prize), International Independent Film Festival 2012, Histoires Vraies.doc Festival, national network of Utopia cinemas, university seminar "Filmer la recherche en sciences humaines".

La Nuit, 4 minutes. Short documentary film.

The Saint Paul prison at night, seen from the outside. From bartering to shouting, from projectiles thrown under the watchful eye of the watchtowers to ropes stretched between the grilled windows, a bubble of incommunication within the communication society.

Distribution: Festival Géométrie Virtuelle, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 2010 and La Poésie Nuit, Lyon, 2008

Luna, 11 minutes. Short documentary film.

Luna could be a woman's name, it is also the name of a funfair, the Luna Park, which settles every year on a wasteland on the outskirts of Lyon. The fairgoers settle there for a few months, surrounded by the prostitutes' vans.

Distribution: Géométrie Virtuelle festival, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 2010 and La Poésie Nuit, Lyon, 2008.

Nabil, 6 minutes. Short documentary film.

In Toulouse, in the Arab quarter of the city centre, Nabil sells cigarettes under the cloak. Like a dozen other men, they all come from the same village in Algeria and only stay in Toulouse for a few years, the time to earn money.

Distribution: Festival La Poésie Nuit, Lyon, 2008.

Paysages, 14 minutes. Short documentary film.

Three landscapes confront and respond to each other: the low-cost housing estate of Fontbarlettes in Valence, an anonymous funfair and the violent televised landscape of the French suburbs' riots.

Distribution: Festival 4° rencontres de l'Art Vidéo, Nîmes, 2007, and festival Vidéodrôme, Valence, 2007