Video interview with Ladj Ly
Ladj Ly (Photo by JR)
Vice magazine has launched The Creators Project, a network dedicated to the celebration of creativity and culture across media and around the world. One of the creators is Ladj Ly, the 29-year-old filmmaker part of the Kourtrajmé collective who made the acclaimed 365 Days in Clichy Montfermeil, a documentary about the 2005 riots in the poor suburbs around Paris.
In the video below, he talks about how his own childhood experiences started him on the path to becoming a documentary filmmaker, talks about the films and directors that inspired him, and how he wants to help develop the tragically under-funded African cinema. For him, making documentaries, which involves following drug dealers in the ghettoised French suburbs, is important because it gives an insider’s point of view to juxtapose against the mainstream media’s often over-simplified portrayal.
