Cogitore clément

portrait by GIASCO BERTOLI
interview by JOHN JEFFERSON SELVE
translation by PEDRO RODRÌGUEZ

documentary as contemporary art
metaphysical camera

JOHN JEFFERSON SELVE — What stirs your interest when you undertake a documentary?

CLÉMENT COGITORE — What interests me is the common denominator between men. The question is to find out to what extent my fellow man is a stranger to me. And vice versa. How do we come to terms with the other? These questions have a certain universality about them. Things weren’t too complicated with Braguino, my film about a family living in autarchy in the depths of Siberia.

JOHN JEFFERSON SELVE — You seem to be utterly free from categories: fiction, film, documentary, images, dreams, etc.

CLÉMENT COGITORE — I don’t worry about categories or disciplines anymore — except when it comes to funding, which requires you to put a name to things. In the early days of…