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[ Collectif Jeune Cinema - history ]

Collectif Jeune Cinéma history

The first Collectif Jeune Cinéma screening took place in Paris on June 23rd 1970 in the Studio Val de Grâce. It was organized by Marcel Mazé and consisted of films that were presented at the Festival International du Jeune Cinéma de Hyères. After the festival, Marcel Mazé met Jonas Mekas, a cofounder of the Filmmakers' Cooperative in New York. Soon after, those who wanted to take part in the first General Assembly of the Cooperative joined Marcel Mazé. They, together with Marcel Mazé, made the selection for the festival in Hyères in 1971. Some twenty screenings, attracting an even wider audience, took place among others in the Institute of Art and Archeology in the Rue Michelet, in the studio Val de Grâce and at the Faculty of Droit d'Assas; right before the founding of the first French cooperative of that kind on June 5th 1971 in Paris. 

On that day the General Assembly chose the first management staff that consisted of Raphaël Bassan, Noël Burch (general secretary), Jean-Paul Cassagnac, Yves-Andé Delubac, Daniel Geldreich, Marcel Mazé (president), Maud Meimon, Luc Moullet (vice-president) and Claude Thiébaut. 

The cineastes that were in festival in Hyères in 1971 decided to unite into a cooperative inspired by the model of the Filmmakers' Coop in New York. Their opinion was that no other way of commercial or associative distribution (cine-club) should be the means of distribution of their films. This kind of cooperative gave a particular identity to French experimental cinema and to filmmakers who were not isolated anymore. The Collectif Jeune Cinéma presented without discrimination all the forms of filmmaking that were otherwise marginalized by the official culture : different cinema, experimental film, avant- garde, other cinema, independent, personal, underground, activist, parallel, new, singular, militant, creative, art film… 

The Collectif Jeune Cinéma also organized - both in Paris (where it had programs in numerous theaters, among others: L'Olympic, La Vieille Grille, le Palais des Arts, Le Passage Dallery), at the festival in Hyères (until it was closed in 1984) and outside Paris - hundreds of screenings that meant promotion, debates, analyses and polemics regarding all the forms of different cinema that marked the 1970s and the beginning of 1980s. The Collectif Jeune Cinéma was present in movie theaters of classic cinema, equally as in museums, libraries, cultural centers, high schools, and faculties. Yves Bessy, Gérard Courant, Patrice Kirchhofer, Jean-Paul Dupuis, Claude Brunel and many others cineastes insured the day-to-day business of the cooperative. Thanks to Marcel Mazé, the Collectif Jeune Cinéma organized a historical screening of the unique, censored film by Jean Genet Un Chant d'amour, in 1973 at the American center in Boulevard Raspail in Paris. After that the Collectif distributed widely this classic film that would later provoke numerous studies. Soon afterwards, in 1974, the official prohibition was abolished which made it possible for the Collectif to distribute the film widely with the permission of the author himself. This event also allowed the films of independent production to gain their status. 

Between 1976 and 1980 the Collectif published twenty-six issues of the magazine Different Cinema, founded by Marcel Mazé and Patrice Kirchhofer (who was the first editor in chief) that established and broadened studies of experimental cinema theory and techniques, both French and international. The critics and writers who contributed to the magazine were: Marcel Hanoun, Marguerite Duras, Dominique Noguez, Théo Hernandez, Michel Nedjar, Laura Oswald, Bernard Perraudin, Maurice Perisset, Claude Brunel, Jean-Pierre Céton, Patrice Kirchhofer, Raphaël Bassan, Hervé Delilia, Katherina Thomadaki, Maria Klonaris, Jérôme de Missolz, Raymonde Carasco and of course the others. 

The New Collectif Jeune Cinéma

The new Collectif Jeune Cinéma was created out of the wish of a few cineastes and filmlovers to re-establish this cooperative by using the model of the old Collectif Jeune Cinéma, whose name they wanted to keep. 

In 1989 under the pressure of National Cinematographic Center, and facing the drop of the cooperative's activity (partially because the Festival International du Jeune Cinéma de Hyères was stopped), Collectif Jeune Cinéma joined Light Cone in order to assure the distribution of their films in a joint catalogue. The Collectif Jeune Cinéma kept the premises in the street Louis Braille and Light Cone kept the secretariat. The first joint catalogue was published in October 1989. 

In 1989 a certain number of cineastes from the Collectif left this joint structure in a friendly way for economical and administrative reasons. 

Marcel Mazé convened a General Assembly of the cooperative on June 5th 1998 in the back room of the café La Taverne in 25, Rue Caumartin. During that meeting former staff from the 1980s was voted back, and it was decided to prepare the festival with DCA, to re-launch film rentals from the historical archive as well as contemporary works. Mazé, now not anymore in the Agency France Press, was assigned to establish a catalogue, put it online, and to manage the office from his apartment. Which he then did. 

At the same time another group - DCA (D’un Cinéma l’Autre) consisting of a few members of Collectif Jeune Cinéma was preparing a festival dedicated to different and experimental cinema, since 1995. The first festival was held in January 1999 at the cinema La Clef in the 5th district in Paris. 

After this first and successful the Paris Festival of Different and Experimental Cinemas, with the subheading "De Hyères à Aujourd’hui", the DCA team broke up. The Collectif Jeune Cinéma alone took over: young filmmakers and video makers decided to submit their works and participate in the new Collectif. New films came to enhance the historic archive and ended up becoming the majority in the catalogue. 

Marcel Mazé was a central figure for different and experimental cinema. He died on February 14th 2012.

Raphaël Bassan, Marcel Mazé (2002), updated by CJC staffs.