The Joy of Knowledge(LE GAI SAVOIR)

Evoking philosophers Nietzsche and Rousseau alongside Third World political revolutionary Patrice Lumumba, The Joy of Knowledge has its two leads meeting in a darkened television studio at night, where they investigate as both theory and practice how words, images, and sounds combine to produce meaning. Inspired by Rousseau's treatise on education Emile, the film is structured as three years of schooling of deconstructing audiovisual communication, separating (to borrow one of the film's metaphors) as a scientist might chemical compounds into their constituent elements. Produced for state television, the film was rejected for broadcasting and later banned when released in cinemas.

Berlin International Film Festival: In Competition