After earning a master’s degree in history and a post-graduate diploma in visual sociology, Alice Diop joined the documentary workshop at La Fémis. Since 2005, she has directed many documentaries, including “La Tour du Monde,” “Clichy pour l’Exemple,” “Les Sénégalaises et la Sénégauloise,” and “Vers la Tendresse.” Diop’s film “La Mort de Danton” won the Library Award at the Cinéma du Réel in Paris, the Grand Prix at the Education Film Festival, and the Scam Star in 2012.
“On Call” will premiere at the 2016 BFI London Film Festival on October 12.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
AD: My film is a [close look at] a free walk-in service for asylum seekers. The film is a portrait of some of the people who risked their lives to arrive in Europe — Eden, in their eyes — and discovered the loneliness and suffering of an exiled life.
They are welcomed to the shelter by a general practitioner and a psychiatrist whom, together, will try to ease the pain of their souls.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
AD: It’s a film about resistance. Actually, the resistance of these doctors who, with very poor odds, try to care for these lonely men and women through the quality of their attention.
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
AD: I will be glad if people, thanks to [“On Call”], could put names and faces to the refugees that are, in Europe, essentially seen as a problem. I’d like spectators to identify with their stories, to feel empathy.
I believe that the film is political — not in the way it strikes solutions or proposes solutions to the questions the migrant situation asks. It is political because it looks people in the eyes; this is a way to understand the violence and the difficulty [the migrants] have been through. Maybe the film could change some spectators’ way of thinking.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
AD: The shooting lasted a complete year. I filmed almost every week. The editing has been complicated: it has been hard to find a way to respect all these stories and follow a narrative.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
AD: The film was funded by the Centre National de la Cinématographie and the French-German TV ARTE.
W&H: What does it mean for you to have your film play at LFF?
AD: This is a great opportunity to show the film in such a huge and well-known festival. I am really proud of it.
The migrants’ problem is European; it has been the heart of the Brexit campaign. That this film can be seen here is important for me because it asks questions that are at the heart of contemporary Europe: Why should we be welcoming? How?
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
AD: When someone is, like I am, a black woman, becoming a filmmaker is not common — so far. I believe that friendly fairies helped me, and still help me, find my place and feel legitimate, compelling me to keep on going, without a glimpse for the people whom might be annoyed.
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
AD: To believe in the legitimacy of their place as women in the film industry.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
AD: The woman director I admire the most is Claire Denis. Her films touch me because of the absolute trust they bear on cinema. There is never a dispensable picture, nor a missing [shot]— everything in her films is right, sensitive, sensuous, and very political. She inspires me a lot.
