Becoming Vera

2008 | 54mins | Colour
Directed by Mieke Bal, Alexandra Loumpet Galitzine & Michelle Williams Gamaker

Genre: Documentary
French, Bamun and Russian with English subtitles

Three years old, living in three worlds

Between age three and four, Vera Loumpet-Galitzine traverses many landscapes, exploring where she comes from, to come into her own. We follow her to her school and neighbourhood activities in France, to Cameroon and to Russia.

As Vera dances, sings and runs around these visually engaging landscapes, seemingly easily integrated into her rich fantasy world, we attempt to imagine what they look like to her. What does she see, think, or imagine? As in all Cinema Suitcase works, the film lets the subject hold the story and her images tell it, and the family explain things, rather than having an authoritative outside voice-over do the telling.

Instead of telling a chronological story, we hop around from moment to moment where Vera’s playing becomes learning as a means to becoming Vera. As in all Cinema Suitcase works, the film lets the subject hold the story and her images tell it, and the family explain things, rather than having an authoritative outside voice-over do the telling.

Film festivals include:

  • Pärnu Film Festival, Pärnu, Estonia, July 9, 2009
  • Tromsø International Film Festival (TIFF), Tromsø, Norway, January 13, 2009
  • Barents Spektakel Festival, Kirkenes, Norway, February 1, 2009

Critical article:
Anna-Helena Klumpen, identité-mosaïqueà l’ère de la mondialisation
LE TOUR DE MANèGE DU « DEVENIR VERA » DANS LE FILM « BECOMING VERa »
65-88 in:
Praxen der Unrast: Von der Reiselust zur modernen Mobilität;
Se faire mobile: Du gout au voyage à la mobilité moderne (Lit Verlag, 2011).

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