A new factory is set to open in Rotterdam in January 2012. The employees are untrained yet films are manufactured there non stop. The director’s seat is occupied by one of the world’s most imaginative filmmakers. Welcome to Michel Gondry’s Home Movie Factory!
Dreams play an important role in director Michel Gondry’s oeuvre. But what is his dream project? It’s not a film, but an interactive installation. At his Home Movie Factory, amateurs make a film together in no time. "In the past, the factory has been to New York, Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro and Paris,” explains Gondry. “The basic principles have always been the same, but we learn something new every time. One thing that will be conspicuously different in Rotterdam is that we will be using different background projections. These have to be aligned to the temporary location you see. Local artists are now shooting footage to this end in Rotterdam.” Does he expect the output in Rotterdam to differ substantially from that produced by the other factories as far as content is concerned? “Phew, perhaps a lot of the stories will be about drugs? I really don’t know. We try to keep the sets a neutral as possible. In New York, for example, we built a gynaecologist’s office. That resulted in one film after another about pregnancy. Nowadays we put our efforts into sets which lead to a wide variety of stories."
In contrast to most other factories, Gondry’s is more about the process than the end result. "The Home Movie Factory is a way of getting people to leave their homes and make friends. To be proud of what they have achieved together and, above all, to have fun. To do so you need a few ground rules. You can’t really do without these because that would lead to anarchy or the bossiest people would always get their way. And too many rules would kill off any creativity. I want to use the Home Movie Factory to show that everyone is creative. The fact that grown-ups no longer do arts and crafts or draw the way they did when they were children doesn’t mean that they have lost their creative faculties. Those just lie dormant. My factory is intended to revivify those faculties. The majority of the so-called creative professions are the domain of privileged people from privileged backgrounds. It can be very refreshing to see what someone who isn’t a ‘creative’ can come up with. Generally, everything you see on TV or at the cinema and a great deal of the music you hear is made by people who have self expression as their profession. This means there are a lot of other people we never see or hear anything from. The Home Movie Factory opens its doors to precisely those people."
Does Gondry view all the films from his factory? "No, because you shouldn’t watch them outside the factory gates. I’m going to spend a number of days in Rotterdam and then I will watch the premières with the teams. I always make excuses when festivals ask to screen the ‘Factory films’. That’s not fair on the film or its makers. I always advise participants not to post their films online. I am, unfortunately, all too aware how easy it is to post lame comments on blogs. These films should be seen in their context. The objective is not to make an amazing film, the objective is to get everyone to contribute. But even the people who don’t participate are more than welcome. Visitors can view the productions in the video library. If they don’t do so before the Factory leaves Rotterdam in March they will have to go to Mexico or Africa to do so…"