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Homage: Dominique Cabrera 2024
Filmstill Chronicle of an Ordinary Suburb
Chronicle of an Ordinary Suburb
Dominique Cabrera
A story about the demolition of tower blocks in a Parisian suburb, about the fond memories of former residents and the inexorable decline of a flawed utopia.
Filmstill Chronicle of an Ordinary Suburb

Chronicle of an Ordinary Suburb

Chronique d’une banlieue ordinaire
Dominique Cabrera
Homage: Dominique Cabrera 2024
Documentary Film
France
1992
56 minutes
French
Subtitles: 
English

In September 1992, four tower blocks in the town of Mantes-la-Jolie, not far from Paris, were demolished. They were part of the Val Fourré district, which was celebrated as a flagship social housing project in the 1960s, as archive footage reminds us at the beginning of the film. But filmmaker Dominique Cabrera, who grew up in a similar housing project herself, is not concerned with urban planning or architectural failures. Instead, she is interested in the residents’ memories: remembrances of the poor and the wealthy living together, of insidious but persistent decline, but above all of the beautiful things that make up a life, the variety, the emotions, the personal happiness.

Christoph Terhechte

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Dominique Cabrera
Script
Edmée Doroszlaï
Editor
Dominique Greussay, Estelle Altman
Producer
Viviane Akili
Sound
Xavier Griette, Raoul Frühauf
Score
Jean-Jacques Birgé