Rewind and Play with Alain Gomis

Docs in Orbit

Nnenna Onuoha speaks with Alain Gomis about his latest film REWIND & PLAY (2022), which she encountered last month at the New York Film Festival.

REWIND & PLAY follows American jazz pianist Thelonius Monk on a 1969 trip to Paris. Monk is in town to perform at the Salle Pleyel, and along the way becomes the subject of a French television program. Rewind & Play unfolds exclusively from the recovered rushes of this recording. And from this single event the film unravels complex subjects including the media’s objectification of Monk’s celebrity, and its simultaneous refusal to recognize his full humanity.
Throughout the interview, we witness painfully, how Monk’s responses, unsatisfactory to his interviewers, are dismissed, spoken over, and edited out. Yet, with a masterful delicacy, the film inter-cuts shots of him playing the piano, allowing his music to assert itself and interrupt the unbearable media machine that has attempted to enfold him.
In the conversation, Nnenna speaks with Alain Gomis about his interest in Thelonius Monk, and how he handled the challenges of representation in the making of this film. The conversation wraps up with some practical advice about how to honor one’s creative vision as a filmmaker, in what can sometimes be a very demanding industry.

We hope you enjoy the conversation.

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