Quel meilleur moyen pour découvrir Saint Etienne que par son réseau de tramways qui sillonnent la ville ? Mis en service en 1881, le tramway stéphanois est le plus ancien de France. Vieille cité ouvrière (métallurgie, extraction de houille…) la ville a subi de plein fouet les crises économiques du XX° siècle, partageant avec Roubaix une décroissance démographique jusqu’alors inconnue en France. Pourtant, « Sainté » a su inverser la tendance grâce à une vie associative et culturelle dynamique et une économie tournée vers l’innovation (Novaciéries, Cité du Design…).

Nicolas Habas comes from cinema first, as a screenwriter and director of several short fiction films including Le mal de Claire, broadcast on French TV and documentaries (La parole en chantier, triptych on a popular neighborhood in urban renewal). He is very interested in the tensions between reality and the imaginary, society and intimacy, geography and territories. With a self-taught apprenticeship that led him to a deep understanding of the codes of the film industry, he decided to find «his» cinema and returned with Le Corps de la Ville, the web series anchored in dance, to his first loves, since he made his first dance video in 1998. Shot during the 30° Eurockéennes de Belfort Festival and Broadcast on Arte Concert, Mouvements is its second web series.

Filmography :

2024 Le corps de la ville en Guadeloupe -  Documentaire 52 ‘(support : HD, © JPL Productions/ WIPS Productions/ Canal +) - en cours de post production - 

2023 L'envol - Court métrage documentaire d'après Ruptures de Bouziane Bouteldja (support : 4k, durée 28' © Cie Dans6T/Cie CinéDanse). Best Cinematography Award, 2024 Breaking Walls Dance Film Festival, Le Caire, Égypte.

2022 Le corps de la ville en Guyane - pilote du documentaire 52’ (support : HD, durée : 5’, © JPL Productions/ WIPS Productions). Sélection officielle : Festival Cinédanse Quebec, Danca Em Foco à Rio de Janeiro, Wyoming Dance Film Festival à Cheyenne, USA.

2022 Danse ton île - Documentaire 52’ (support : HD, © JPL Productions/ AV Com Productions/ France Télévision).

2021 Le corps de la ville en Martinique - Documentaire 52 ‘ et web série (support : HD, durée : 10 x 5’, © JPL Productions/ WIPS Productions/ France Télévision).

2020 Pères en prison - Court métrage documentaire (support HD, durée 5’ © Festival La Rochelle Cinéma/ studio Un Poil Court)

2019 Le corps de la ville à Nouméa - Documentaire 52 ‘ et web série (support : HD, durée : 10 x 5’, © JPL Productions/ AV Com Productions/ France Télévision).

2018 Mouvements - Documentaire 26’ et web série (support : HD, durée : 18 x 3’, © Séquence SDP/ Eurockéennes de Belfort/ Viadanse/ Ccn de Belfort/ Arte Concert).

2014/2019 Le corps de la ville - web série (support : HD, durée : 36 x 4’, © studio Un Poil Court en partenariat avec le Festival La Rochelle Cinéma, Studio Chérie (Berlin), le Périscope (Lyon), Le Festival Nocte Graus (Espagne), le Festival DAN.CIN.FEST, Le CCN de La Rochelle, la Cie En Knap (Slovénie), la Cie Hors Série, la Cie Propos, la Cie Jean Claude Gallotta et le CNSMD de Lyon).

2011 Mauvaise graine - Court métrage de fiction (support : 35 mm, durée : 21’, © CLC Productions/ Lyon TV).

2006/2012 La parole en chantier - Triptyque documentaire (support : HDV, durée : 3x40’, © Petits bolides films/ Espace Louis Aragon).

2004 Le mal de Claire - Court métrage de fiction (support : Super 16 mm, durée 14’, © Lumina Films/France Télévision).

2000 En attendant septembre - Court métrage de fiction (support : DV, durée : 30’, © Petits Bolides films/ Carré Image). 

1998 Marie au parc - Vidéo danse (support : S-VHS, durée 7’, auto production).

In this documentary serial, each place consists of an original choreographic proposal, created and filmed in situ, in its natural sound environment. A work that requires a rigorous filming device, in which I am looking for a bridge where choreographic and cinematographic creation could enlighten each other. Also, I am in a permanent creative bond with the choreographers to transcribe with them the intentions of the proposed dance, in view of its environment.

The first step is upstream of the shooting, and consists in finding the location of the shooting with the dancer. It is not a question of investing space arbitrarily, but of integrating the dancer’s personal and living experience into telling it. The choice also derives from the visual and choreographic cinematographic potential and its historical and sociological significance.

The second stage is that of writing, the result of a collaboration between the body of the dancer, the camera, and the chosen space.

The work begins on the basis of a concerted improvisation. It is a question of letting oneself be grasped by the sensations to which the chosen place sends us: the colors, the matter of the floors, the circulation of light and the flow of individuals are as many materials likely to nourish and frame the writing. The hand rests on a wall, the foot slides on gravel, a body tastes the freshness of the shade under a tree... And already a story is woven between a body and a moving gaze, which will result in a rigorous technical cutting, in which the movements of the choreography are written according to certain camera axes.

This meticulous writing allows us to concentrate, at the time of filming, on the excellence of the choreographic gesture, and the quality of natural light. Like an actor, the dancer perfects his gestures, while I play with the shadows and contrasts created by the evolution of natural lighting.

Meeting point between a place and a body, between the choreographic and cinematographic creation of the documentary, in direct connection with the history of a territory, its inhabitants and its users, Le corps de la ville, wishes above all to make the poetry of dance accessible to all.