From the organizer: “Are you happy?” 

With this simple question asked to passers-by in Paris, sociologist Edgar Morin and anthropologist and filmmaker Jean Rouch started a new documentary genre that they called “cinéma-vérité”. The idea seems naïve: to understand how the French 1961 youth think of life, future, happiness and project themselves. The documentarists hence engage in a series of beautiful conversations with young people form their circles of acquaintances who discuss their lives – a Holocaust survivor, an Italian immigrant, a student from Ivory Coast, a Saint-Tropez starlet... 
More so, the film is a question about the documentary genre – its moral engagement and aesthetic forms. Following the steps of Dziga Vertov and his Kino-Pravda (remember, “Man with a movie camera”?), Morin and Rouch’s uninhibited capture of Paris was extremely influential for the following generations of documentary and film directors.

Directors: Edgar Morin & Jean Rouch
Year: 1961
Duration: 85 min
Country: France
IMDB ratings: 7,5/10
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxk-fg771r8
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054745/
Language: French with dual Eng-Viet subs.

This screening is an original collaboration with the French Institute in Vietnam.

Free entrance but please get drink and/or food to support the venue and the staff. No outside food or drinks allowed.