By detecting the survival of traumas from the past in the present, Maxime Jean-Baptiste's films and performances are focused on archives and forms of reenactment as a perspective to conceive a vivid and embodied memory.
Maxime Jean-Baptiste is a filmmaker based between Belgium, France and French Guiana. By detecting the survival of traumas from the past in the present, his films and performances are focused on archives and forms of reenactment as a perspective to conceive a vivid and embodied memory. His first film NOU VOIX (2018) was awarded the Jury Prize at Festival des Cinémas Différents et Expérimentaux de Paris. His second movie, LISTEN TO THE BEAT OF OUR IMAGES (2021), co-directed with his sister Audrey Jean-Baptiste was selected in about 130 festivals, including Sundance, CPH:DOX (Special Mention), Hotdocs, IDFA, Go Short among many others, and nominated for the Cesar award for the best short documentary in 2023. His last film, MOUNE Ô (2022) had its premiere at the Berlinale (Forum Expanded), in February 2022, and is distributed by Square Eyes.
He is currently editing his first feature length film, "Kouté vwa", that dives into the life of the Cité Mont-Lucas, French Guiana, through the eyes of a young boy, Melrick. A film that explore love, violence, revenge and mourning. The film is supported by New Dawn Fond , Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles and Région Guyane.
Beside filmmaking, Maxime is curating screening programs with his collective Black Archive, together with Stéphane Gérard, Eden Tinto Collins and Sofia Dati, focused on afro-descendant filmmakers. The programme are shown both in festivals, cinema or art center.
Moune Ô
HD Video / 16:40 min / 2022
"I close my eyes. The crowd makes me smile, breaks my body, and that's the end"
By presenting the festive events which escorted the projection of the film "Jean Galmot aventurier" by Alain Maline, where the filmmaker’s father played a role, the images of Moune Ô reveal the survival of the colonial inheritance within a Western collective unconscious always marked of stereotypes. From little gestures of daily life, the resistance toward oppression comes in its own rhythm.