Jonathan Ali talks to Mallory Eloy Paisley, the Guadeloupe-born director of L’Homme-Vertige: Tales from a City
Mallory Eloy Paisley: “I believe that film is not separate from life”
In 2016, filmmaker Mallory Eloy-Paisley began documenting Pointe-à-Pitre, her hometown and the administrative center of Guadeloupe, a French Caribbean region. In particular, she photographed the lives of several people who live on its precarious periphery. Eight years later, her intimate and ambitious Tapestry film is Man and Madness: A City Storyappearing as witnesses to these lives.
Through the compassionate lens of the filmmaker’s camera, we meet a cast of unforgettable characters: T’Chall, an elderly man who participated in the Cuban revolution and now suffers from lung disease; Eddie, a naive homeless drug addict; and Erik, a stoic philosopher who recites a series of literary works while walking the decaying streets of the city. Taken together, these sensitive cinematic portraits form a poetic analogue of the island and society.
Mallory Eloi Paisley spoke. Jonathan Ali About the process that led to her quietly brilliant film coming to fruition.
What inspired you to make this film?
I am struck by the people I encounter, and the power of the characters I meet: prophets and seers who live in the city of Pointe-à-Pitre and who tell me something about us and our history. There was an urgency to address certain issues, such as the unspoken aspects of society, “this monster”, as the Martinique novelist Patrick Chamoiseau puts it.
What does “L’homme-Vertige” (literally “the dizzy man”) mean?
Men’s Vertige is poetry. I am influenced by Haitian literature, especially spiral literature, which breaks the norms of rational thinking and linear narrative. The Haitian poet Franquetienne uses the rhythm of Creole, a lively language, rich in metaphors and with a unique musicality. He often uses the term “vertige” when talking about the chaos in Port-au-Prince.
Likewise, I wanted to speak of our territory with our rhythms and our language. Vertigo is a state of anxiety bordering on madness. The men and women in my films bear witness to the chaos of the world, the anguish of a society on the edge of the abyss, but endure without being defeated. I was looking for words to embody this complexity.
How did you meet your participants and what was the process of getting to know them?
I believe that film is not separate from life, and that is why I found it by being myself. I see unique beings, and there is something about the way they exist in the world that fascinates me. It is this growing curiosity that drives me towards other people. Film is my alibi to maintain that connection that may not exist otherwise, or that can only exist through film.
The film not only documents the lives of the participants, but also bears witness to the urban development of Pointe-à-Pitre.
When I returned to Guadeloupe after several years abroad, the city was in the midst of change. There was little documentation of what was happening: the forced eviction and resettlement of its inhabitants, those who could not afford new housing. Squatters, ruins and fires abound. To photograph the other side of Pointe-à-Pitre is to experience emptiness and immobility, but at the same time to gauge the impact of history and successive policies adopted in Europe, thousands of kilometers away.
The independence movement UPLG (Popular Union for the Liberation of Guadeloupe) also features in the film, whose flag is a recurring motif in the film and even figures prominently in the final shot.
The independence flag is increasingly permeating everyday life. When I started editing, I wondered how an outsider would understand that this is a colony. I told myself that the French flag should be visible in the landscape. I thought that there needed to be a clear sign for people to understand the presence of the colony. But this violence is present everywhere, it permeates architecture, bodies, language.
Is independence the solution?
I don’t think that’s the problem. I don’t know what the solution to this violence is. I can only say that there are structural problems of a political, economic and social nature. These are closely linked to our past with the French state, to the relations we inherited from our colonial society, to our economic dependence, to the lack of a food self-sufficiency policy, to unemployment, to soil contamination, etc. The list is long. So far, France has not acted in our interests. Always this contempt, this feeling of superiority. What more can I say?
Man and Madness: A City Story (2024)
Directed by: Mallory Elloy Paisley
Guadeloupe • 93 minutes
