Lost In Frenchlation: Simon Bouisson’s DRONE

In this episode ARBL Murray and Manon Kerjean talk to director Simon Bouisson about his latest film DRONE, his past work as an interactive filmmaker, building stories around the many layers of truth behind emerging technologies, the male gaze, making electronic music with composer Paul Saban, and using Artificial Intelligence in cinema. We also find out about what it was like to work with the drone racing community and the famous drone pilot, Benoit Finck. 

 

Drone is the story of Émilie, a young woman who has been accepted into an elite architecture program at one of Paris' top schools. To support herself and her education she works as a cam girl on the side. She enters into a strange relationship with a drone that watches her from her window at night. At first the drone seems to be a protector and friend but soon things turn very sinister and she has to uncover the truth about where this mysterious drone comes from and who is behind it. 

 

Simon Bouisson is a graduate of the prestigious La Fémis film school in Paris. After graduating he directed documentaries while exploring the possibilities of interactive filmmaking. His first feature narrative “Wei or Die” allowed the audience to switch between many points of view running simultaneously from a cell phone to a police body cam. Then he made "République," a film about a terrorist attack. With an app the viewer could slide through three running narratives as single points of view or in split screen. He went on to work with the idea of "slow TV" n a 9 hour experience for France 4 in which a man walks forward around a reversed Tokyo with all its inhabitants moving backward. In 2020 he started  directing a more linear type of series called STALK playing with the themes that are also present in DRONE: the digital world, its opportunities, its dangers, and how human nature can become warped by being so "online." Most recently he has been working on a feature film utilizing AI technology. You can read about it here (in French).