ZANZIBAR Film Collective

FILMMAKER JACKIE RAYNAL, WHO WAS PART OF THE ZANZIBAR GROUP IN THE LATE 1960s. SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.

During the volatile late 1960s in Paris, the filmmaking collective known as Zanzibar began creating outsider movies, many of which are now lost or neglected. The group (consisting of Philippe Garrel, Jackie Raynal, Serge Bard, Daniel Pommereulle, Olivier Mosset, Frédéric Pardo, Patrick Deval, Caroline de Bendern, Zouzou, and others) resembled a clique of Warhol Factory-esque characters — a few of whom had actually worked at the Factory. Though all were cinephiles, they had only modest filmmaking experience. Still, the Zanzibar films are infused with the countercultural energy and restlessness of the times, thanks to the group’s refreshing lack of experience and regard for cinematic convention. Zanzibar’s benefactor, hippie heiress Sylvina Boissonnas, generously funded many of these works, which were shot on expensive 35mm film.

GME distributes a number of films that emerged from the Zanzibar collective on DSL and DVD to the North American institutional market. Notable titles we offer include Garrel’s LA CICATRICE INTÉRIEURE (1969), starring Nico and described by the director as “a record of what was going through my head at the time of the shoot;” Raynal’s DEUX FOIS (1968), dubbed by Noël Burch “an intentionally elementary meditation on certain primary functions of film;” and Bard’s ICI ET MAINTENANT (1969), which (according to fellow Zanzibar member Patrick Deval) “consists of the dreams of the solitary rambler, post-revolution.”

The Zanzibar films have continued relevance among cinephiles today. Last month, Metrograph mounted the series One More Time: The Cinema of Daniel Pommereulle, which examines the French artist and filmmaker’s “singular relationship to the world of cinema that’s also a cross-section of some of the most revolutionary French film art to come out of the 1960s and ’70s.” As part of this series, which is curated by Armance Léger and Boris Bergmann, Metrograph screened Raynal’s DEUX FOIS (1968) along with Bard’s ICI ET MAINTENANT and FUN AND GAMES on September 15th. Two days earlier, on the 13th, Pommereulle’s VITE (1969) — which is included as a bonus feature on GME’s DVD release of ICI ET MAINTENANT — was also shown.

To explore all of the Zanzibar titles GME distributes to North American universities, click here.