Studio 34 – The creation residency

The STUDIO 34 Residence is a place for emerging filmmakers who wish to make their first short or medium-length films. With no prerequisite experience or training, residents apply via an annual call for projects.

Supervised by some fifteen film professionals (producers, scriptwriters, directors, technicians), the residents are accompanied in the making of their film from the writing stage to theatrical and festival screening. 

The first residency began in February 2021, and is currently following three of the five selected projects into post-production, with two projects completed and screened at festivals. 

The Studio 34 residency was born in the turmoil of the occupation of the La Clef cinema. It extends its horizontal operation and the defence of fragile films to cinematographic creation; the five films of the first residency are produced collectively by volunteer film professionals and interveners from the cinematographic milieu (producers, directors, technicians…).

by Chloé Lecci López

Since my father’s arrest, I have been recording our telephone conversations. Like every summer, I travel to Catania in Sicily to visit my father’s family.

This time I film them and ask them about my father’s youth. Walking through the volcanic city, I meet Giulio, a young man of eighteen. From our exchanges, I try to understand why the path of delinquency is sometimes the only way out.

The residency

I was lucky enough to take part in the Studio 34 residency during which five supervisors accompanied me from writing to post-production to make my film project. Studio 34 gave me confidence, offered me a free space to create as well as everything I needed to complete my project. Getting grants or writing residencies for a first film is often very difficult and locked in. Studio 34 is essential, it has been a springboard for me and other young authors.

Pre-selection at the César 2024, Paris

Lune D’or and Price of the audience at the Festival 7^e Lune, Paris

Price Zalab at Frontdoc, Aoste, Italia

FLiMM Paris, no competition

Jury’s Special Mention at the Cinemed, Montpellier

Best film at Cinema brut, Marseille

Fanatici Festival, Naples

Écrans du réel, Le Mans

Jury’s Mention at the Écrans documentaires, Arcueil

Sélection at the Festival de Films de Femmes 2023, Créteil

Sélection at the Porto Femme international festival 2023, Porto, Portugal

Sélection at the Salento international film festival 2023, Salento, Italia

Festival Entrevues, Belfort

Festival Côté Court 2023, Pantin

Territoires en image, Paris

First Doc, Tunis, Tunisia

Festival La Première Fois 2023, Marseille

Special Screening at the Centre Georges Pompidou 1st of March 2023, Paris

by Thomas Hirgorom

In the night, a woman finds texts from a missing man. What could they possibly say?

Biography :

Coming from anthropology and ethnomusicology, Thomas turned to documentary to combine fieldwork from the social sciences with a cinematic vision.

The residency :

Without the residency at the La Clef cinema, this film would never have been as accomplished. It took me out of the solitude that can exist when writing an independent film by offering a place to live together and exchange ideas about the films in progress. A place to live, a place to fight, a place to share political and artistic ideas. A place like this is necessary to see a politically or artistically different cinema.

Selection in Art Video contest category at the Festival Côté Court 2023, Pantin

Selection at FANAA 2023, Saint-Georges de Dionne

Selection at the Chantiers du Réel 2023, Marseille

by Lucien Pin

BOÏ is a self-portrait.
The fantasy portrait of my trans body without transition.
I know who I am. I also know what I am, deep down.
I am a boy who is megenered into a woman.
I am a boy with hips and breasts.
I am not a woman born a woman.
I am not a man born a man.
I am a boï. I am Lucien.

Biography :

Lucien is 25 years old, he is a trans man (he/iel) living in Paris and originally from Charente and Charente Maritime. He studied production at La Fémis where he could not make films of the kind. He got close to La Clef Revival for the residency at studio 34 and stayed there for the love of this cinema. Today, he has completed his transition but his film bears witness to this in-between time when one hesitates to take the plunge.

Selection at Un Festival C’est Trop Court 2023, Nice

by Nathanaël Ruiz de Infante

L’air ambiant s’alourdit,
Ça fait un moment que je le ressens.
Cet air est lourd,
Je le sens sur ma peau.
Aujourd’hui des étrangers sont venu nous aviser
Qu’une bête s’approche.

Joachim, an adventurous journalist, sets off with his film crew to Tarascon to document the damage caused by the Rhône in the region.
During his interviews, his journey turns into an initiatory quest to meet the river and the legendary creature that inhabits it: the Tarasque.
The inhabitants gradually agree to initiate him into various practices and to train him for what will eventually become an obsession: finding the creature and understanding what is holding it back.

The residency

This adventure with STUDIO 34 was extremely important because it allowed me to understand that I wanted to work around cinema, whether by directing or accompanying projects that interest me. 

This year of writing and collective creation has shown me that such an organisation can provide tools that others have found by attending institutional schools. Tools and knowledge of professionals are shared, everyone brings their skills to the table and leaves with new knowledge. 

STUDIO 34 is the strength of teaching for young people, by young people, with continuous learning on both sides. This results in projects that have been thought out and built collectively. When we talk about films, I have the impression that working in a group is the strongest and most interesting thing, and this is the heart of STUDIO 34.

Premiere on the 3^rd of May 2024 at the Festival Nouveaux Rêves, Saint-Étienne

by Mona Lefèvre

Selection at the Festival Animatica 2023, Sarrono, Italia

Sélection at the Festival International du Film d’Amiens 2023