Directing workshop with Yann Gonzalez

Directing workshop with Yann Gonzalez

In partnership with La Manufacture, the Master Cinema ECAL/HEAD  invited director Yann Gonzalez to take part in a directing workshop.

Studio project (2023) by Jonathan Daza Ospina, Sara Dutch, Fei Fan, Pablo Guscetti, Anna Joos, Saleh Kashefi, Theofanis Papadopoulos, Valentina Parati

Professor:
Yann Gonzalez

The most crucial challenge in working on the question of theatricality was to create links between the students of the Master ECAL/HEAD, and those of La Manufacture - Stage directing Master. Theatricality is organic to my cinephilia and, indeed, to my films. By showing the students extracts from opposite ends of the spectrum, from Chantal Akerman's Toute une nuit to John Waters' Desperate Living, from Daniel Schmid's Cette nuit ou jamais to a clip from Palmbomen II, I wanted to convey this idea of a plural theatricality, by turns playful and grotesque, hypnotic and lyrical. In short, theatricality as a tool for freedom. And that's what we set out to do, all of us together, during this short workshop week: to create bursts of freedom within the limits of a collective exercise with no resources - two days of preparation and reflection, two days of filming, one day of editing. Starting with a basic constraint and narrative, two groups of six students opened up their most unbridled imaginations and shared roles and functions with a group spirit that was a pleasure to behold.

Yann Gonzalez, director

Projets similaires

Tabarak Allah Abbas – Spring Fugue – 2026 #1

MA FILM STUDIES

Tabarak Allah Abbas – Spring Fugue – 2026 #1

by Tabarak Allah Abbas

Spring Fugue is a short film following a 13-year-old Georgian girl living in Switzerland. Over the course of a single day, the film moves through family silence, cultural displacement, and political tensions inherited from the adult world. By deconstructing classical dramaturgical structures, Spring Fugue seeks to place the audience in the same position as the girl's mother: observing, interpreting, and questioning. Within the constraint of a ten-minute format, the film builds tension through gesture, gaze, and movement rather than dialogue or exposition.

Gabrielle Amapakabo – One Fine Evening In Santa Paura

MA FILM STUDIES

Gabrielle Amapakabo – One Fine Evening In Santa Paura

by Gabrielle Amapakabo

One Fine Evening in Santa Paura is a first draft of a feature-length fiction screenplay that blends a coming-of-age story with a fantasy epic. The story follows Craig Melville, a 10-year-old American boy, who spends the summer with his older sister Theo in a small village in Ticino. While the young boy dreams of being noticed by his father, Charles, an absent businessman, he befriends Otto, the mute gardener of the villa they are staying in, who introduces him to the beauty of nature. But Charles' plans for the valley could threaten their budding friendship. This project seeks to explore the staging of silence, childhood, and places as a narrative language in their own right.

Mariam Bitsadze – Spring Fugue – 2026 #2

MA FILM STUDIES

Mariam Bitsadze – Spring Fugue – 2026 #2

by Mariam Bitsadze

Spring Fugue is a short film following a 13-year-old Georgian girl living in Switzerland. Over the course of a single day, the film moves through family silence, cultural displacement, and political tensions inherited from the adult world. By deconstructing classical dramaturgical structures, Spring Fugue seeks to place the audience in the same position as the girl's mother: observing, interpreting, and questioning. Within the constraint of a ten-minute format, the film builds tension through gesture, gaze, and movement rather than dialogue or exposition.

Romane Demidoff – Ada s'en va

MA FILM STUDIES

Romane Demidoff – Ada s'en va

by Romane Demidoff

On the evening of August 1st, as her entire family prepares to celebrate the Swiss National Day, 20-year-old Ada receives a shock: she is pregnant. Reeling from the news, she flees her suffocating home. While waiting for a bus that never arrives, a car pulls over. Behind the wheel is a young man named Merlin, convinced he has just found Sandra, his long-lost first love. At first surprised, Ada quickly regains her composure and begins pretending to be her. Together, they set off toward Montreux. But their nighttime journey takes an unexpected turn when they discover a little girl hiding in the back seat. On the shores of Lake Geneva, this unlikely trio improvises a fragile, fleeting family, while Ada struggles to come to terms with a shifting identity that she can barely define herself.

Jacob Detwiler – Toilet – 2026 #1

MA FILM STUDIES

Jacob Detwiler – Toilet – 2026 #1

by Jacob Detwiler

Toilet tells the story of two women after the end of the world. The older one builds a toilet by stacking stones, almost like a ritual, while the younger one is drawn to her gestures and the rhythm of her work. The film explores what forms of humanity might remain in such a world, looking at the way someone's habits and sensations can be passed on to another person. As the film has almost no dialogue, it traces the shift from hostility to intimacy through the characters' gestures, gazes, and sound rather than through language. Sound, in particular, is an important element: it reveals emotions and changes in the relationship that the characters do not express through language, and supports the film's most delicate moments.

Related courses