A fascinating exchange between a BBC film crew and French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist Jean Genet.
From a BBC2 documentary entitled “Saint Genet" (1985). Filmed in the apartment of the writer Nigel Williams, who conducted the interview. Directed by Nigel Williams and Charles Chabot, originally filmed for BBC's Arena arts program. The interview was conducted in early summer 1985, less than a year before Genet’s death, and would be his last filmed interview.
"I had a dream last night. I dreamed that the technicians for this film revolted. Assisting with the arrangement of the shots, the preparation of a film, they never have the right to speak. Now why is that? And I thought they would be daring enough – since we were talking yesterday about being daring – to chase me from my seat, to take my place. And yet they don’t move. Can you tell me how they explain that?" - Jean Genet
Jean Genet photographed in 1983
The full Arena Documentary "Saint Genet" can be found here...