Virginie Viard has entrusted filmmaker Ladj Ly and students from the Kourtrajmé school in Montfermeil and Dakar to produce a documentary series about the CHANEL 2022/23 Métiers d'art show.

Established in 1994 by Kim Chapiron, Toumani Sangaré and Romain Gavras, Kourtrajmé (French back slang for court métrage “short film”) is a French association and collective of artists working in the audio-visual field. Present today in Montfermeil, Marseille, Madrid and Dakar - since January 2022 - it provides training in the film industry open to all, free of charge and without pre-requisites. A symbol of Senegal's importance in the film industry, the Kourtrajmé Dakar school guides young Senegalese directors and scriptwriters by giving them access to artistic and technical training as well as the possibility of extending their professional network.

Filmed between the CHANEL Creation studio on rue Cambon in Paris, le19M located between Paris and Aubervilliers, and Dakar, a series of four videos have come out of this encounter between Virginie Viard, Ladj Ly and the school's students. In the run-up to the show, which will be held at the former Palais de Justice in Dakar, Ladj Ly emphasises the creative freedom of this collaboration: “The idea of this project is to build a bridge between the school in Montfermeil and the one in Dakar. It's a very real exchange. Kourtrajmé's motto has always been total freedom. We explained the project to the students, gave them a vision and then they suggested things with their own artistic identity all while remaining faithful to the world of CHANEL.”

The first episode of this series reveals the final preparations for the collection in the CHANEL ateliers and the Creation studio, interspersed with images of Dakar where choreographer Dimitri Chamblas and the dancers from L’École des Sables rehearse under the watchful eye of Virginie Viard.

The film of the CHANEL – Dakar 2022/23 Métiers d'art show will be unveiled on Thursday December 8th at 1pm Dakar time and 2pm Paris time, on chanel.com.

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