Guillaume Martial in front of an old projector.
CL
“Cinema is a social bond, what interests me are the relationships that people have with the film. »
“Cinema mediator means exploring and strengthening the link between film and its audiences. It’s something more than just going to the cinema,” underlines the young man, who, after training in Bordeaux, puts his knowledge of cinema at the service of the three structures, via mediation actions such as “Ciné-lecture » where a story is read before the screening of a film. He also brings other “arts” to the cinema: Ruffec’s Concordia choir and Villefagnan’s Polysons came to sing before the Aznavour biopic. Since his arrival, visits to the Facebook pages of the three cinemas have increased fivefold, which bodes well for the future.
Increasing traffic in theaters, particularly for the 12-25 year old age group, is the objective of Guillaume Martial, whose position is 75% financed by the Region and 25% by the own funds of the three cinemas. “I benefited from the recruitment wave launched by the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region and the National Cinema Center,” explains the young man, who is one of ten cinema mediators recruited in the region, from the Basque Country to Deux-Sèvres.
Quebec experience
At 27 years old, Guillaume Martial already has several experiences behind him. Originally from Dordogne, he studied cinema, obtaining a Master 2 “Historical and sociocultural approach to cinema”, obtained in 2021 in Périgueux. At the same time, he was one of the co-founders of “Cinépasseurs”, a Ribéracoise association for image education which organized the arrival of directors, original screenings, debates, etc. in partnership with the Max Linder cinema and the high school.
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“Cinema is a social bond, what interests me are the relationships that people have with film,” admits Guillaume Martial, who also trained in Quebec where he lived for two years, from 2021 to 2023 After working a small job as a charcutier the first year, he then found himself director of an “Art et Essay” room in Montreal. “I learned to manage everything to run a cinema and it was an extremely enriching year,” explains the man who today works in partnership with Ciné Passion 16, the Angoumois association responsible for promoting cinema in rural areas in Charente.
Another of its objectives is to try to make the meetings with the rooms cyclical. “What is implemented in one cinema, is implemented in the other two,” explains Guillaume Martial, for whom the question of organization and time is crucial with different constraints and partners. “I have to work with three different audiences but I have total freedom,” appreciates the mediator.
