Pacific Club
Fall Grants 2021 - Production Stage
Valentin Noujaïm / Short Documentary / France, Qatar / 15 min / Original Language: Arabic, French / Interests: Immigration, Creative Documentary
Synopsis
La Défense, the 1980s. Paris’ business district is booming—in the day, men and women come to work—in the night, the district empties. Meanwhile, French President François Mitterrand proudly launches the monumental Grande Arche de la Défense in honour of the French Revolution and “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity”. The Pacific Club opens beneath it all. In 1979, the Pacific Club was the first nightclub to welcome young Arab boys and girls from the suburbs, who were usually banned from Paris’ nightclubs. For a decade, they danced under the glass and steel towers of this district. They represented the first generation of sons and daughters of immigrants who dreamed of integrating into France. However, they weren’t dressed like other French youth, and they listened to a different type of music—hip hop, soul, and R’n‘B. Guided by the voice of Azedine, 18 years old in 1983, the film sheds light on the segregation of the Parisian nightlife, mixing archives and wanderings. Pacific Club is a testimony, on film, of these forgotten and hidden places where immigrants lived, danced and loved, to prevent them from disappearing.
Credits
- Director
- Valentin Noujaïm
- Screenwriter
- Valentin Noujaïm
- Producer
- Manon Messiant
- Production Company
- Iliade et Films
About the Director
Born in France in 1991 to Lebanese and Egyptian parents, Valentin Noujaïm joined the Fémis (French Film School) in 2016, in the screenplay department, from which he graduated in July 2020. He directed a documentary film 'Before She Forgets Heliopolis', which premiered at Punto de Vista and an experimental film 'The Blue Star', supported by the Doha Film Institute and AFAC and presented at the International Festival Visions du Réel in Nyon (2020) in international competition. His first short fiction film, 'Daughters of Destiny', was supported by the CNC and is currently in post-production. He is developing his first feature film, 'La Nuit des Reines', produced by Kometa Films.