This biography, at the articulation of the personal story and the research projects, is a late work of memory without returning to the archives.
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Links in blue refer to long written topics . I am the author of the photos presented here, except for a few marked ©.

CURRICULUM – PORTRAIT

Directror of Research at the CNRS
Member of IRIS [EHESS, CNRS, Paris 13, INSERM] since 2008
Co-founder and member of the EHESS Audiovisual Centre
Lecturer at EHESS, 1985 to 2004
Member of the Centre for African Studies. CNRS/EHESS, 1985-2008

LIST OF WORKS

COMMITMENT

Après l’Océan (After the Ocean) – Shad [Frazer James] ©tomaBaqueni

Anthropology is a discipline at the crossroads of other human sciences, but its centre of gravity is fieldwork, with a high level of involvement on the part of the researcher. Originating during the colonial period in the 19th century, it was tasked with gathering knowledge about the indigenous populations of conquered territories. This is what linked it to cinema.

The 7th art was born at the same time with the basic vocation of “understanding man”. According to Marey, to study body movements, and according to the Lumiere brothers, to “offer the world to the world” [Tavernier]. It is the only discipline that has maintained a relationship with photography and cinema. I threw myself into this coexistence, which was not always a peaceful one!

8 neighbours – Fatima puts her veil back on – Paris

Since childhood, I’ve had a deep-seated need to move off-centre, with a marked taste for encounters that combine otherness, questioning and confrontation. Following an initiation to Africa by Marc Piault, who I’ll talk about later, I received my first research funding for my thesis at the LAS (Social Anthropology Laboratory).

At the same time, I joined Claude Meillassoux’s CNRS team which, with Maurice Godelier, was trying to adapt Marxist concepts to indigenous economies. My discovery of anthropology provided a link with my student commitments to the extreme left. I’ve always abhorred racism, colonialism, preconceived ideas, overbearing positions and abuses of power.

In the 1990s, Marc Augé launched the “anthropology of the contemporary”, opposing an anthropology of “ disappearing worlds” invested with traditions outside their confrontations with the modern world: migrations, wars, famines, violence… Urban anthropology already existed and the entire discipline was to focus on the niches of modernity: doctors’ surgeries, farmers’ unions, hunting, factories, courts, ghettos, etc. … places invested by a new generation of young researchers.

My cinematographic choices, linked to issues of confinement and exclusion, naturally led me towards the movement that is sometimes referred to as the “Augé years”. This was a time when writing through images was well received.

Little Go girls – Les Millionnaires district – Abidjan

PORTRAITS AND INTERVIEWS – PRESS

Aaton advertising for Time Code – ©beauviala-jp

 « Portrait of a researcher in the CNRS Journal. Anthropology in 16 mm. The other side of things. »

Journal du CNRS – Laure Siaud – Avril, n°88 1997

« A fascinating experience, “like a breath of fresh air”, which led [EdL] to take an ever-increasing interest in the language of film, and to take on different challenges with each film. »

Journal du CNRS – Muriel Fourlon Janvier 2002

« It’s amazing that this film was made by a white woman! An anthropologist’s view in small touches of the way people dress, from the dirty clothes of the ghetto to the Afro-American fashions of the city, of religion, and of course of language, which is at the heart of the film…»

Fluctuate – Portrait d’Eliane de Latour – A propos de Bronx Barbès – Avril 2003

« Interview with Eliane de Latour, film-maker and anthropologist »

Université de Franche Comté – Besançon – 24.09.2006

« An insatiable philanthropist, Eliane de Latour is a committed and humanistic researcher »

Figaroscope -2009

« Côte d’Ivoire: the crisis as seen from the street by Eliane de Latour and Michel Galy »

France culture – Les retours du dimanche – Martin Quenenhen, Agnès Chauveau – 6.4.2011

« An encounter with Eliane de Latour. Between fiction and documentary, cinema that gives a voice to those who suffer from confinement and exclusion. »

Cinéma singulier – Simon Pochet – 20.12. 2012 

« Eliane de Latour » dans Hors Champ – Laure Adler – Radio interview

 France culture – 06.02.2013

« Women victims of violence in the public sphere »

Maison des métallos – Éliane de Latour and Françoise Héritier – 25.11.2014

« A propos de documentaire » Éliane de Latour

États généraux du documentaire – LussasInterview with Damien Pelletier and Arielle Estrada – 17.08.2015 

« On the roads to exile – carte blanche in film with Eliane de Latour – Four motifs: the scapegoat, the delinquent, the entrepreneur and the hero in contemporary European cinema »

France culture – Les nouvelles vagues – Marie Richeux – 25.09.2015

Master class by Eliane de Latour – International Encounters in Science and Cinema

AMU Marseille – 21.11.2016

Eliane de Latour and Kool Shen

France culture –  Ping Pong – Martin Quenenhen and Mathilde Serre – 09.03.2016

«Interview with Eliane de Latour on Little Go Girls»

Culturopoing – Thomas Rolland 10.03.2016 

« Eliane De Latour talks about how she met Françoise Héritier »

France inter – L’Heure bleue – Laure Adler

Videos

Dyptique théâtre – “50 brèves de métiers” – 2019

The job of ethnologist with 1st year students from Bondy. Meetings with Eliane de Latour.

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Eliane de Latour on 28’ Arte – 2016
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8 March

A propos de documentaires – Eliane de Latour – 2015

Interview by Damien Pelletier and Arielle Estrada – Tënk
Round table talks on documentary films

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Women victims of violence in the public sphere – 2014

Éliane de Latour and Françoise Héritier at the Maison des métallos – 25 November