Haute Normandie

PÔLE IMAGE HAUTE-NORMANDIE

Pierre LEMARCHAND
Pôle Régional des Savoirs
115, Boulevard de l’Europe
76100 Rouen
France
T. + 33 (0)2 35 89 12 43 / Fax : + 33 (0)2 35 70 35 71
pierrelemarchand@poleimagehn.com
www.poleimagehn.com

The image centre of Haute-Normandie, regional joint committee for Passeurs d’images, born in 2001, is the result of a fusion between three associations working in favour of images in the widest sense – photography, video, films and multimedia. The image centre is a resource centre for the public as well as for professionals (reception, information, research centre, counselling), a development support for film studies (aid funds for creation, shooting bureau, trainings, actions regarding distribution), a regional centre for artistic education (following national guidelines), and a place for the conservation of memory in charge of referencing, safeguarding and valuing the amateur film heritage of the region.

PASSEURS D’IMAGES IN HAUTE-NORMANDIE > BACKGROUND

In 1994, the DRAC (Regional Bureau for Cultural Affairs), determined to implement the operation in Haute-Normandie, a region with many deprived neighbourhoods (Le Mont Gaillard in Le Havre, Les Hauts in Rouen, La Madeleine in Evreux… Neighbourhoods that sooner or later would all become involved in the operation), launched the first edition of Un été au Ciné (Summer at the movies) with the help of Le Volcan, Scène nationale du Havre, a pioneer in the domain of film education.

The following year, a coordination post was created to develop this operation that first involved 8, then 10 and finally 12 towns (in 2000). Parallel to this territorial expansion, Un été au Ciné took shape, IRIS (future Image Centre in Haute-Normandie) was logically entrusted with its coordination, which gave birth to beautiful synergies between professionals and field players : practice workshops henceforth started in spring and ended in February with the organization of Regional Youth Forums, trainings were implemented for coordinators... Cinéville settled in Haute-Normandie. But the state/region financing, coming under the Urban Policy program, kept reducing. It determined most of the town’s involvement and, in spite of the 80 000 concerned persons (after only 6 years), the State’s impulse, and the activist work of the regional joint committee, still remained essential to the implementation of the operation in Haute-Normandie.

From 2001 on, the joint committee, in charge of the image centre of Haute-Normandie, created new ways to reach new publics via the implementation of workshops in hospitals (intergenerational projects on filmed correspondences), or actions in jail. The region took part in the first years of "Des cinés, la vie !" (Movies, life !), aimed at youth under judicial protection. An efficient and perennial partnership was implemented with the “Secours Populaire Français” in order to reach families, through a pricing policy, but also with special screenings (mostly animation films) and workshops open to beneficiaries. This regional collaboration became a reality when a national agreement between Passeurs d’images and the Secours populaire français was signed. This same type of partnership was then developed in other French regions.