Jean-Marc Chapoulie's Heretical Film History Explores Amateur Cinema in Brest

Jean-Marc Chapoulie's book 'Le mariage de Cathy et Jean-Paul' (Filigranes / le Quartier) continues his project of writing a heretical history of filmic practices, following 'Alchimicinéma' (Presses du réel, 2008). He stayed in Brest to explore the reserves of the Cinémathèque de Bretagne, seeking confirmation that amateur film production constitutes a considerable part of our cinematographic heritage, largely ignored because cinémathèques focus on fine arts film history. Chapoulie argues that cinema has become an anthropological gesture and a marker of the human species, and that the history of moving images cannot be reduced to the history of forms. He warns against the hysteria of preserving everything, which ends the reasonable idea of ephemeral works. Aware that viewing everything is illusory, he asked what films are not found in a cinémathèque—those whose value has been ignored. The title refers to a wedding film shot on Super 8 with sound, made 36 years ago.