This is the story of a small film laboratory located in the suburbs of Paris, L’Abominable (admire the pun), which over time has become the temple of film cinema. First installed in Asnières (Hauts-de-Seine) in 1996, L’Abominable then migrated to La Courneuve (Seine-Saint-Denis) in 2011, when the cinema was undergoing its digital transformation, which led to the closure of the large labs which manufactured 35 millimeter copies per kilometer. One of them, the Eclair establishment, located in Epinay-sur-Seine, in the same department of 93, ended up going out of business in 2013. A few years later, in 2018, the municipality decided to buy back the 4 hectare site on the initiative of its mayor, the centrist Hervé Chevreau, with a view to converting it into a cultural place.
Initially, the association L’Abominable did not appear in the artistic wasteland project of the local elected official. But the directors – Nicolas Rey, Julia Gouin, Emmanuel Falguières, Nathalie Nambot… – came knocking on the door, forced to leave their premises in La Courneuve themselves – a former school where rehabilitation work will take place. Seduced by this return to history, the little lab turning on the lights of the former flagship of the film industry, the mayor of Epinay-sur-Seine decided to provide the laboratory with premises of around 1,000 square meters, it is up to the filmmakers to find the funding for the work to bring it up to standard – estimated at 2.4 million euros. In addition to the factory workshop, with its machines (optical printers, etc.), its post-production table and its living space, a projection room (seventy seats) will welcome the public – probably in the fall of 2023 – , all designed by the architect François Le Pivain. Named Argo Ship, the project will continue to be managed by L’Abominable.
Site remained in its own juice
The radiation of the laboratory, with its films selected in major festivals, did not escape the mayor. One of its pillars, Nicolas Rey, born in 1968, is known for his expert work on outdated film (you read that right). He is the author ofOtherwise, Molussia (2012), a sumptuous and bucolic stroll through an imaginary country, undermined by fascism, which won the Grand Prix at the Cinéma du réel in 2012. At “Réel”, this year, another feature film from L’Abominable is in French competition, navigators, by Noah Teichner. Let’s quote again Los Conductos, by Camilo Restrepo, a graphic essay on violence in Colombia, Best First Film Award at the Berlinale in 2020.
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