SPECIAL FILM SCREENING as part of the New Imaginaries of Migration Seminar: 'Is It A True Storytelling?'

To attend the screening, please register here.

Is It A True Storytelling is an autopsy of an asylum application institution that obscures the truth of language to focus on its veracity. Directed by Clio Simon in collaboration with composer and researcher Javier Elipe Gimeno, it is a sound object that combines silence, staggering and enlightening words, and a minimalist opera with rare images that play on symmetry. Simon confronts the constraint of the impossibility of filming, and transforms it into the power of cinema. She manages to convey the intimate conviction and solidarity of the people in the immigration and asylum service, who, even if they are hindered, try to flourish despite the orders.

The film will be introduced by Hari Reed.
Hari coordinates the policy, advocacy and campaigning work for Asylum Welcome in Oxford, Refugee Support group in Reading, and the Thames Valley Immigration Alliance. She previously volunteered for a range of refugee support initiatives in the UK, France and Belgium. Hari moved into the sector after completing a PhD in English Literature at the University of Birmingham, where her research concerned representations of the activist and voluntary response to the ‘refugee crisis’ in 2015-16.

This event is organised as part of the webinar series 'New Imaginaries of Migration' on the 5th of December from 12:30 to 2 pm. 

Born in 1984 in the Massif Central, Clio Simon graduated from Le Fresnoy in 2015. As a filmmaker, her works question the conventions of documentary and explore new representations where poetic forms and digressive narratives coexist. To develop her work, the artist populates her "immaterial workshop" with researchers, philosophers, anthropologists and artists.

Her works develop the idea that people not only live in society but constantly create society in order to live. Imagination and reality are intrinsically linked to question the foundations of our societies.

Winner of the "Mondes nouveaux" award, she directed "Rhapsodie juridique" in 2023. "Is it a true story telling?" was awarded the Tënk Prize in 2019, then joined the Collection of theFRAC des Hauts-de-France in 2022. For the 2019/2020 season, Clio Simon is an associate artist at the CRP/ (Centre Régional de la Photographie Hauts-de-France) directed by Muriel Enjalran, and curator of her first solo exhibition "Oïkos" in 2020.

Clio Simon is an associate artist of La malterie and lives in Lille. She continues her collaborations with Le Fresnoy, Ircam/Centre-Pompidou and EHESS.

Her work is distributed by Heure Exquise and the Studio national d'art contemporain du Fresnoy.