From The Outskirts of Paris, This School Is Making Filmaking More Accessible
Not In Paris is back for its 5th edition. With countless parties, a pop-up store, brand collaborations and exclusive content, it's our biggest one yet. Explore the series here and shop the collection here.
École Kourtrajmé is not in Paris. The founding flagship of the film school, (with outposts in Marseilles, Dakar and the Caribbean) is located about 11 miles from the centre of the city in Montfermeil, lesser known for the glittering monuments of its neighbour as the location in which Victor Hugos wrote his 1862 novel, Les Miserables, and its headline-making social disquiet in the housing estate called ‘Les Bosquets’.
Speak to anyone that has grown up in the banlieues, a French word used to describe the suburbs outside of the Parisian periphery, and they’ll explain to you that this is the real Paris. However, modern, celebrated ‘French’ story telling appears to focus skew towards the adventures of a certain kind of Paris-centric fantasy, (I’m looking at you, Emily) as opposed to the everyperson that lives just beyond.
Montfermeil is where École Kourtrajmé founder Ladj Ly grew up. The director and screenwriter’s film, Les Miserables, examining the tensions between warring factions of the neighbourhood’s underworld through the eyes of a fresh transplant to the Anti-Crime Brigade of the suburb. The film won a Jury Prize at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and went on to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2020.
Founded in 2018, Kourtjamé, (French slang for “short film”) was initiated by Ladj Ly and directors Kim Chapiron, Toumani Sangaré and Romain Gavras, (best known as the controversial director behind Jay Z & Kanye West’s No Church In The Wild, M.I.A’s Born Free and the 2022 Netflix film, Athena) as a means to enable aspiring artists who have been marginalized to find their creative voice through industry opportunities and accessible education.
We collaborated with École Kourtjamé for the fifth edition of Not In Paris, working together to release a capsule collection and tapping some students to product a short video for the project, which you can see below.
Today, Ly oversees all four schools, ensuring coordination, cohesion, and forward momentum for all four establishments whilst managing the film projects of its’ students. Ly’s goal was to promote social integration by offering free training in the film industry, open to all without any educational requirements, offering students the expertise of professionals and artists in the industry. “The strength of our school is that it is free, open to all, with no qualification requirements and no age limit,” he explains via Facetime, on the go between meetings in Montfermeil.
“[Our student profiles include those] who would not even dare to apply to major universities, people who come from disadvantaged neighbourhoods, even people who were lawyers and managers who want to give new meaning to their lives – to stop what they are doing and become screenwriters. We have some students who were doctors, some young people who come from the housing estates that have hardly been to school… We find all these profiles with a common interest, a desire to say something, to tell a story.”
For Kourtjamé Director, Nabil Zerfa, who looks over the administration and finances for the school, it’s about bringing overlooked voices to the fore. “The idea is to do a bit like what has been done in the music industry. In France, young people listen to rap by mostly by singers who come from the neighbourhoods and, at one time or another, I think that for television and cinema, there has to be [a similar level of] diversity. That’s really the objective of the school, to have the same kind of diversity that exists in the world of music.” Zerfa adds that many of the ten students who comprised the school’s first screenwriting class are currently in preparation for their first feature films.
“We have Ladj, we have Romain Gavras, [actress] Ludivigne Sagnier; We have been able to leverage their network to be able to get a foothold for our students. It’s a medium that is quite closed. You have to have the keys to enter this universe. It's a bit like fashion, which draws inspiration from the street to design its collections. Now, cinema is very interested in [drawing from] new ideas with new people.”
It's a sentiment evidenced by the support of Netflix, who joined forces with Kourtjamé in a sponsorship program spanning three years. The streaming powerhouse provided the financing for three short films made by students selected by the school including funds for equipment and transport for students who do not live nearby. The partnership, announced in 2020, seeks to promote a new generation of talent in cinematographic and audiovisual creation, also contributing to writing workshops and masterclasses with the likes of director Spike Lee and artist JR, (who spearheads an art course at Kourtjamé).
When asked if he sees a positive change in the diversity of modern French cinema, Zerfa is hopeful. “It’s moving forward. There’s always room for improvement. Whether or not diversity is woven into the piece depends on who is holding the pen.”
Find out more about École Kourtrajmé here and shop the collection here.
