On Friday, September 23 at 11 a.m. (Canadian time), they will all (or almost) be on screen at the Documentary Film Festival in Lunenburg, a town in Nova Scotia, Canada, during a screening of “We Can Be Heroes,” a film directed by Florent Lacazzi, director of Bordeaux who filmed …
On Friday, September 23 at 11 a.m. (Canadian time), they will all (or almost) be on screen at the Documentary Film Festival in Lunenburg, a town in Nova Scotia, Canada, during a screening of “We Can Be Heroes,” a film directed by Bordeaux filmmaker Florent Lacazzi, who filmed this entire adventure at the Parc des expositions de La Teste-de-Buch in the spring of 2020.
The Laurent Thelet Archives / “The Southwest”
This will be the first public and official showing of this 93-minute film. Others saw it. For example, the Cannes Film Festival Selection Committee. But it was not kept. “That’s normal, agrees Florent Lacazzi, it’s the biggest festival in the world, the competition is huge and if it’s a movie, it’s still a documentary, which is less in line with Cannes.”
“You have fifteen seconds.”
For Florent Lacazzi, the story begins with an insurance group: “Axa wanted to give money to companies that made masks or gels and they asked me to make a short film about it. Florent Lacazzi is a director and also runs a production company, Daisy Day Films.
The Laurent Thelet Archives / “The Southwest”
Confined to the Paris area, he came across a mask factory set up in two days by a Teich businessman, Libéro Mazzone, at the Parc des expos in La Teste-de-Buch. He has never made a mask in his life, it is not even in textiles, but it is very bad. “When I called him for the image rights, he said, ‘Hey, you have fifteen seconds.'” He replied OK and hung up. »
Florent Lacazzi
“I told myself I was going to go to the sink and tell this story. I felt something strong there.”
The second call is longer. “Libero told me the story and it sparked a desire in me. I hadn’t gone out in ten years and spent my life trying to edit documentaries for other people. It was containment. We all asked a lot of questions: What does it mean to me? And there, I said to myself I was going to the sink and tell this story.” I felt something strong there.”
Daisy Day Films produces “human” films (“In the heart of the woods” about prostitutes in 2021, “On the Edge of the World” about homeless people in 2014, etc.). All mankind flooded under the roof of the Parc des expos.
In times of crisis, everything comes out, the worst as the best. “In these moments, people wake up. At the factory, Libero Matzon explained: “Here, we make people’s freedom. And this was true. Because there weren’t any masks anywhere, and sometimes there weren’t enough masks in the hospital. And without a mask, we can’t go out, see each other, work, we can’t do anything. Liberty lionesses are made of cloth and rubber bands …
After ending the call with Libéro, Florent called his chief customer. The next evening, they drove at night to be in La Teste at nine in the morning, “without knowing whether we would stay three days or three weeks”. And they turn. Things are clarified with Libéro, who tends to want to get everything out: “I wanted to make a movie as I saw it. A motion picture. We went to the microphone and then did what we wanted.”
Florent Lacaze has hundreds of hours of burst captured in his thirty-one days of filming. Today, he has the movie We Can Be Heroes, which will hit theaters in 2023. Spiderman and Indiana Jones are heroes, and lionesses too.
Steps and the red carpet
But, before its theatrical release, will “We Can Be Heroes” be shown in pool preview? Libéro Mazzone in a dream, as he explains in a video posted on Facebook.
“I approached the town hall of Arcachon, Mayor Yves Fallon, to ask him to show the film The Lions at a premiere in the Palace of Congress. The stars go up the stairs, but ours isn’t Cannes, it’s Arcachon. And we are proud of him. Even if there are only three, they are the steps of the lionesses. He hopes for this preview in Arcachon in October, if the château is free, with a red carpet from the quay of Thiers, and to invite all those who have directly or indirectly participated in ‘this extraordinary human adventure’.
