Ben Russell
Direct Action
Author(s) Ben Russell and Guillaume Cailleau, Johanna Himmelsbach, Theetat Thunkijjanukij
Format paperback
Year 2025
Language(s) English/French
Pages 460 pages
Description
DIRECT ACTION is a book developed in continuity with the film DIRECT ACTION, shot at the ZAD of Notre-Dame-des-Landes by Ben Russell and Guillaume Cailleau.
Design: Johanna Himmelsbach
Typography: Johanna Himmelsbach & Theetat Thunkijjanukij
While the film DIRECT ACTION aims to be contemplative and silent, the book DIRECT ACTION proposes to be its counterpoint. After a screening of the film at the ZAD of Notre-Dame-des-Landes in December 2023, Guillaume Cailleau and Ben Russell wanted to extend the experience by collecting stories from the film's protagonists, following screenings, during informal interviews, or through correspondence.
The almost total absence of political discourse in the film allows for the parallel existence of a book centered on language, reception, and interpretation. These interventions consist of personal anecdotes, political stories, and intimate details prompted by the images, revealing a rich network of connections between a place, a person, a collective, and a cause.
This approach has something in common with the work of visual anthropologists such as Robert Gardner or Jean Rouch in the 1970s-80s, who often accompanied their audiovisual works with publications serving to describe, define, and interpret their images. However, it was not common for these anthropologists to turn to their subjects to ask for context and interpretation. In this publication, the aim is to rely primarily on the impressions of the ZADists to extend the work into the territories of history, memory, debate, and activist strategy.
A critical text by Erika Balsom, as well as a cross-interview with Antoine Thirion, programmer and journalist, accompany the words of Anaïs, Arthur, Baptiste, Benj, Blue, Cécile, -h-, Colette, Corentin, Étienne, Isa, Jasmin, Jay, Ji, Lara, Lino, Marcel, Mathilde, Bastien, René, Servane, Sylvie, Thibault, Tanne, Tibo, and Yahia.
Publication: JULY 9, 2025
ISBN 978-2-9583917-1-3
DIRECT ACTION, the film: https://shellacfilms.com/film/direct-action/