Yves Geleyn‘s La Gaîté Lyrique is a promotional short from 2009 for a new media arts museum of the same name.

Check it out down below!

La Gaîté Lyrique

Nadine Labaki‘s 2011 Where Do We Go Now? (Et Maintenant, On Va Où) centers on a village of Lebanese women who utilize indirect / unorthodox methods to ease the constant fighting between their Christian and Muslim brothers. Lengthy official summary as follows:

“Where Do We Go Now? tells the story of a remote, isolated unnamed Lebanese village inhabited by both Muslims and Christians. The village is surrounded by land mines only reachable by a small bridge.As civil strife engulfed the country, The women in the village learn of this fact and try , by various means and to varying success, to keep their men in the dark, Sabotaging the village radio, then the destroying the village TV’s sound box. Roukoz, a young boy, who’s job -along with Nassim, another boy- is to go to nearby towns to buy the villages produce and bring back various item, discovers the broken sound box and decides to use the churches speaker instead. He trips and falls and breaks the cross.

The next day, the congregation is gathered in church to celebrate the Sunday mass, The Priest preaches about the need to fix the church, and blames the broken cross on the wind, telling churchgoers to keep their cool and that their fellow villagers have nothing to do with it. Some time later the Imam discovers that some goats have found their ways into the mosque, As people starts to gather, A Muslim man blames a christian for what has happened and a small fight ensues. the Village is slowly drawn into violence, and the women , who get along beautifully conspire together to keep their men from fighting, including hiring Eastern European dancers to entertain their men. But as Nassim is killed while on an errand in a nearby town, the women are faced with a real test of wills. In an attempt to control the situation, they drug the men by mixing hashish inside sweet pastries and removing their weapons from the village.”

Full trailer can be streamed down below!

Where Do We Go Now? (Et Maintenant, On Va Où)

Fashion model / actress / director Rie Rasmussen focuses on a young woman’s haunting recollection of experiences during the Kosovo Serbian conflict. Originally released in 2009, Human Zoo is being re-played for a week at the New Beverly in Los Angeles, CA (backed by director Quentin Tarantino). Official synopsis can be read as follows:

“Human Zoo is the story of a half Albanian half Serbian girl set in both the time of the worst fighting in Kosovo Serbia, as well as present day Marseille France where being an illegal immigrant is tricky when your “government deemed unfit by the international community make you so” too. Presented like a novel in the non linear storytelling of the two interwoven time lines we follow Adria through horrific executions, comical naked altercations and subtle moments of love that shape her existence in her cage without bars. From air strikes in Belgrade and the underworld of Europe, to lust at first sight that could be love, to the simple connection of just holding hands. As “a product of imaginary lines around failed states” Adria tries to find her balance looking for identity as a human female while being raised and trained in the mostly male perpetuated zoo of violence. It’s not her game but she can learn…well!”

Trailer can be viewed down below (sorry, no english subs for the latter of the preview):

Human Zoo

David Dusa‘s Flowers of Evil (Fleurs du Mal) centers on a young couple living in Paris protesting against the violence in Iran by using the Internet as their battlegrounds. The more detailed and official synopsis as follows:

“Miss Dalloway, a young woman from Tehran’s high society, is sent to Paris by her parents to protect her from the political violence in Iran. She falls in love with Gecko, the bellhop at her hotel, but the bloodshed resurfaces through the Internet.

A 21st century love story steeped in Internet and tangled up in History.”

The trailer is embedded down below:

Flowers of Evil (Fleurs du Mal)

What would the post-apocalypse look like? French director Florent Tillon gives us some philosophical insight into these types of questions and more in his latest documentary Detroit Wild City. The official synopsis as follows:

“Welcome to the city of Detroit, ‘the Murder Capital of the USA’, where the grass is growing over the parking lots and the houses are abandoned. Here, a new life is slowly beginning to take form and take over the deserted city. But even if the writing on the wall has a different and more apocalyptic meaning, there is no reason to panic. Detroit Wild City looks with the wandering gaze and cool, philosophical distance of the outsider at the changes in urban landscapes in a historical moment when a ‘post-’ is written before ‘utopias’, ‘humanity’ and ‘dollar capitalism’. Invisible disasters have ruined the city, and all that is left are traces in the form of radio adverts about debt relief, flocks of stray dogs, and a mysterious pile of burned New Age books. But on the fringes of it all, people have started to reorganize themselves in autonomous societies, where settlers are growing vegetables and still believe in the future – just not as an extension of the present. Florent Tillon keeps a level head and like a French Jim Jarmusch he turns his selective camera to where new ideas grow in the ruins of the 20th century’s belief in eternal progress. And where the knowledge that something new is going to happen is a rare piece of good news.”

The trailer is embedded down at the bottom:

Detroit Wild CIty

Serge Birault is a freelance digital illustrator from France. If you missed out on his EMPTY KINGDOM feature last year, make sure you check it out here. Today, We bring Mr. Birault back to EK for an interview in order to get further acquainted with the man himself, and his pinup-influenced digital illustrations.

(Please mind the grammar. Serge is French, and we here at EK present the artist words as we receive them without altering anything – pure.) =)

Introduce yourself, How long have you been an artist?
Well, I’m not sure to know what is an artist, so I can’t say if I’m an artist or not. I worked in illustration field since more than ten years now.

Do you remember what was the first work you did? Where is it?
Yes, I was 14 years old, it was a very painting on a spanish restaurant’s wall. And it wasn’t a masterpiece

How has your art changed since then, thematically and aesthetically?
I began to make pin up when I was a teenager, perhaps for hormonal reasons. I suppose I’m still one

Where are you from? What was it like growing up?
I’m from Strasbourg, in France but I’m living in Toulouse since my early age. I grown up in a very poor area. There were a lot of people from various countries and cultures. I had a happy childhood.

What do you want to achieve through your art?
I don’t have very ambitions. I’m happy when I saw some of my works on a screen or on a wall. I just try to do enjoyable pictures.

Who are some artists that have influenced your work?
My major influences were and are still Hajime Sorayama and Gil Elvgen. I stole all my technique to Sorayama and Elvgren is simply the best pin-up painter ever.

Who are some artists/art blogs that you are currently interested
in/following?
A lot of people. I’m very curious and I’m like a spong. I spend at least one hour per day to look what the others do. I have to admit my friend David Dunstan influence me a lot. He does more cartoon characters than mine with a very, very clean rendering.

Did you go to school for art or are you self-taught?
I did very long studies of law. Yes, I know, it’s a bit strange. It was very interesting but lawyer wasn’t a job for me.

Tell us about your process from beginning to end.
I do very few sketches because I now able to draw what I have in my mind. I choose the ambiant light than I do the face of the character. I spend a lot of time in faces. I do the body pretty fast after that. I use a lot airbrush (soft round brush) with very low opacity, it’s my only secret weapon.

Where do you find the inspiration for your work?
My friends are my best inspiration and motivation. My favorite model, Maria Gibson is a good friend of mine. I want her to be happy of the pictures I made of her. In this way, I try to do my best.

What’s next for you, whether shows, series or otherwise?
A comic book, several artbooks, a lot of character design, several exhibitions and a teaching. I will be very busy this year.

Would you rather be a werewolf or a vampire and why?
A werewolf without hesitation. In fact, I’m already a werewolf, I’m very lunatic.

If you had 24 hours to live, what would you do?
I think I would spend 24 hours without working

sergebirault.fr

http://www.behance.net/beautifulreal

Sebastien Sonet is a CG artist from France.

http://sparth.com