A reflection on the near and the far, the past and present, Promenade observes a series of movements and interactions on a renovated section of the Marseille waterfront. Recorded during two years, the film depicts the new life of a commercial shipping pier recently converted into a public esplanade and the site of two imposing modern buildings over the course of a single day. Before daybreak, the space is nearly empty. Sunrise prompts a start to daily activities—boats arrive, fishermen cast out their lines, the first timid tourists line up outside of a new museum. During the day, a cast of itinerant vendors, swimmers, fishermen, and other locals circle around the J4’s new visitors and buildings, eventually reclaiming the space at night.
Philip Cartelli
Philip Cartelli is a moving-image artist and researcher whose film and video work has been exhibited at Locarno Film Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Visions du Réel, Torino Film Festival, FID Marseille, and Film at Lincoln Center’s Art of the Real, among others. He holds a PhD in Media Anthropology with a secondary emphasis in Critical Media Practice from Harvard University, where he was a member of the Sensory Ethnography Lab, and a PhD in Sociology from the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (Paris).