Can committed humor reconcile us?
Trials of the Century - season 4
Moderator: Nora Hamadi
With Matthieu Longatte, actor, screenwriter, director, video artist and Bérénice Hamidi, university professor, specialist in cultural representations, honorary member of the Institut Universitaire de France.
With the participation of Mireille Jacotin, chief curator of heritage, head of the Public Life Department at Mucem, and the complicity of Nelly Quemener, sociologist in information and communication sciences.
“Humor is just one way of defending yourself against the universe,” said Mel Brooks.
Political satire, derision, comedy club and community humor, humor oscillates between saving sincerity and the risk of fragmenting society. Between clashes and polemics, can committed humor also be a place of openness and reconciliation?
Nora Hamadi
Nora Hamadi © ARTE
Nora Hamadi, journalist, has been producer of the program “Sous les radars” on France Culture and the face of Arte’s European programs since September 2021. Since 2015, she has been co-editor-in-chief with Raphal Yem of Fumigène, littérature de rue, a magazine dedicated to current affairs as seen from working-class neighborhoods, and leads numerous popular education workshops on media and information, in schools, social centers and neighborhood centers. She chairs the Collectif ŒIL and ZEP, Zone d’expression prioritaire, two associations dedicated to bringing the voices and stories of the invisible into the public arena.
Matthieu Longatte
Matthieu Longatte © Benjoy
A graduate of the Trappes school of theatrical improvisation, Matthieu Longatte acted in independent films before launching his own current affairs column “Bonjour Tristesse” on Youtube, which attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers. He then wrote his show “Etat Des Gueux”, which he performed 200 times in Paris and throughout France. Writer and director of the Canal Plus series “Narvalo”, he is also a singer under the name Matheos.
Bérénice Hamidi
Bérénice Hamidi
Bérénice Hamidi is Professor of Aesthetics and Politics of the Performing Arts at Lyon 2 University and Honorary Member of the Institut Universitaire de France. Her research brings together sociology, aesthetics and cultural studies from an intersectional perspective. She is interested in the political stakes of cultural representations (theater, cinema, series, novels).
How do artworks reproduce/transform relations of domination? Why do the arts act as a sounding board for the controversies that stir up political and media debate (blackface, rape culture, etc.)?
Nelly Quemener
Nelly Quemener © Mathieu Di Paolo
Nelly Quemener is Professor of Information and Communication Sciences at CELSA – Sorbonne University and Director of the GRIPIC laboratory. Her work in Cultural Studies focuses on the articulation of power relations in audiovisual representations, the mediatization of social movements and media controversies. She is the author of Le Pouvoir de l’humour. Politiques des représentations dans les médias en France (Armand Colin, 2014) and co-author with Maxime Cervulle of Cultural Studies: Théories et méthodes (Armand Colin, 2015, 2018). She co-edited with Maxime Cervulle and Florian Vörös, Matérialismes, culture et communication, t. 2, Cultural Studies, théories féministes et postcoloniales (Presse des Mines, 2016); and with Sarah Lécossais, En quête d’archives. Bricolages méthodologiques en terrains médiatiques (INA Éditions, 2018). In 2022, she defended a habilitation to direct research on “Les réactions à Dieudonné au prisme des intensités affectives: d’un emballement médiatique à l’avènement d’une communauté réactive en ligne” (Université Lumière/Lyon 2).
Moderator: Nora Hamadi
With Matthieu Longatte, actor, screenwriter, director, video artist and Bérénice Hamidi, university professor, specialist in cultural representations, honorary member of the Institut Universitaire de France.
With the participation of Mireille Jacotin, chief curator of heritage, head of the Public Life Department at Mucem, and the complicity of Nelly Quemener, sociologist in information and communication sciences.
“Humor is just one way of defending yourself against the universe,” said Mel Brooks.
Political satire, derision, comedy club and community humor, humor oscillates between saving sincerity and the risk of fragmenting society. Between clashes and polemics, can committed humor also be a place of openness and reconciliation?
Nora Hamadi
Nora Hamadi © ARTE
Nora Hamadi, journalist, has been producer of the program “Sous les radars” on France Culture and the face of Arte’s European programs since September 2021. Since 2015, she has been co-editor-in-chief with Raphal Yem of Fumigène, littérature de rue, a magazine dedicated to current affairs as seen from working-class neighborhoods, and leads numerous popular education workshops on media and information, in schools, social centers and neighborhood centers. She chairs the Collectif ŒIL and ZEP, Zone d’expression prioritaire, two associations dedicated to bringing the voices and stories of the invisible into the public arena.
Matthieu Longatte
Matthieu Longatte © Benjoy
A graduate of the Trappes school of theatrical improvisation, Matthieu Longatte acted in independent films before launching his own current affairs column “Bonjour Tristesse” on Youtube, which attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers. He then wrote his show “Etat Des Gueux”, which he performed 200 times in Paris and throughout France. Writer and director of the Canal Plus series “Narvalo”, he is also a singer under the name Matheos.
Bérénice Hamidi
Bérénice Hamidi
Bérénice Hamidi is Professor of Aesthetics and Politics of the Performing Arts at Lyon 2 University and Honorary Member of the Institut Universitaire de France. Her research brings together sociology, aesthetics and cultural studies from an intersectional perspective. She is interested in the political stakes of cultural representations (theater, cinema, series, novels).
How do artworks reproduce/transform relations of domination? Why do the arts act as a sounding board for the controversies that stir up political and media debate (blackface, rape culture, etc.)?
Nelly Quemener
Nelly Quemener © Mathieu Di Paolo
Nelly Quemener is Professor of Information and Communication Sciences at CELSA – Sorbonne University and Director of the GRIPIC laboratory. Her work in Cultural Studies focuses on the articulation of power relations in audiovisual representations, the mediatization of social movements and media controversies. She is the author of Le Pouvoir de l’humour. Politiques des représentations dans les médias en France (Armand Colin, 2014) and co-author with Maxime Cervulle of Cultural Studies: Théories et méthodes (Armand Colin, 2015, 2018). She co-edited with Maxime Cervulle and Florian Vörös, Matérialismes, culture et communication, t. 2, Cultural Studies, théories féministes et postcoloniales (Presse des Mines, 2016); and with Sarah Lécossais, En quête d’archives. Bricolages méthodologiques en terrains médiatiques (INA Éditions, 2018). In 2022, she defended a habilitation to direct research on “Les réactions à Dieudonné au prisme des intensités affectives: d’un emballement médiatique à l’avènement d’une communauté réactive en ligne” (Université Lumière/Lyon 2).