Simon Gillard

Author and director. He cultivates a very strong relationship with the people and the territory of West Africa where he lives and works part of the year. He shoots all his films there, almost alone with his camera and microphones, followed by his assistant, Lassina Coulibaly. Thus, with this ultra light and immersive approach, almost artisanal, he listens to remote and marginal communities, to stage faces, languages and cultures, very little pictured in the cinema. His works vibrate between documentary and fiction, between dream and reality, nourished by a sensory, haptic aesthetic, telling the story of the mystery that surrounds his rural heroes. His full-length documentary debut Aya has been premiered at the ACID section at 2021’ Cannes.