PINNED INTO A DRESS

vita

Guillaume Thomas

Guillaume Thomas (1990), as a child, wanted to be a magician. They told him “Magic does not exist,” so he armed himself with a still and move camera to prove the vitality of fairies. His quest has taken him on a journey to document those brave and enchanted souls who are unafraid to express the multiplicity of beings, their infinite selves. Those entities which he describes as “characters”. Trained in photography and video at l’École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, as well as at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Guillaume directed his first movie Life damages the living selected at Rencontres internationales Paris/Berlin (2022) in 2021 at Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains. He is always on the look-out for characters, people reinventing themselves. Exhibited across Paris, his art work exploring the future of beauty, the Queer community and body expression was awarded multiple times through the years. With the visual and sound installation Ad Astra displayed at Le Fresnoy from September to December 2022, he now turns to the stars: how to go from fingerprint to starprint?

vita

Gianluca Matarrese

Gianluca Matarrese (1980) was born in Torino and moved to Paris in 2002 to study cinema and theater. He graduated in History and Critics of North American Cinema at the University of Torino and Paris VIII, also graduating at the Ecole Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris. In 2008 he started working in French television, as a writer and director for a comedy series on OCS networks broadcast until 2012. Then he continued as writer, director and segment producer in entertainment department for moreover than 25 programs and all French networks. In 2019 his documentary Fuori Tutto (Rossofuoco Films, Agat Films, France Télévisions) won the award for Best Italian Documentary at the Torino Film Festival. His film La dernière séance (The Last Chapter) had its world premiere at the last Venice International Film Critics’ Week, winning the Queer Lion Award. The film has been selected at IDFA, Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, and keeps touring in other international festivals. The film has recently been broadcast on SKY Italy networks. He directed, for France Télévisions, the musical documentary on the singer Barbara Pravi, representative of the Eurovision Contest 2020. His latest film Fashion Babylon (Bellota Films & France Télévisions) premiered at CPH:DOX and Hot Docs and more than 20 festivals around the world. It has been broadcast in 10 countries. His new film Il Posto (A Steady Job) (Altara Films, Bocalupo Films & ARTE / NDR), co-directed with Mattia Colombo premiered in Vision du Réel and Hot Docs, and it’s currently touring in several international festivals. He has currently two new films in the making for 2023.