Paris Journal

Paris Journal (2009, HD video, 4 minutes)

Walking down the Rue du Faubourg St-Denis at dusk after a day of shooting, I heard a sound: part-shouting, part-singing. I had to know what it was. Men in front of Cours des Halles and Select Primeur, two rival produce stores on the corner of Rue de Metz, were hawking fruit and vegetables to anyone who would listen. We stood still and listened.

I could make out prices and names of produce but it was clear there was idiom I couldn't catch, so my first thought was to make a field recording that I could bring home and listen closely to. We stepped to Cours des Halles, where my friend and colleague Raphaële explained to some of the vendors how I wanted to record but they were all reticent.

Across the street at Select Primeur, the word was if we were going to film anyone, we'd want one guy: Borgi. Borgi Mhemni graciously let me film what he does, which I consider a kind of theater on the street. It's clear why he's who his colleagues pointed to: he has presence, a voice that carries and a stock of lines amusing enough to give pause to busy Parisians passing by.


"Paris Journal" was shown on Twin Cities Public Television as part of MNTV 2009, a program of Minnesota-produced short films presented by Twin Cities Public Television in partnership with IFP Minneapolis/St. Paul and the Walker Art Center, funded by the Jerome Foundation.

"Paris Journal" was exhibited in 2010 at the Walker Art Center, in the Best Buy Film/Video Bay.