For over twenty years, the French artist and filmmaker Jean-Charles Hue has been working alongside the Yenish community in France and with destitute populations in Tijuana, creating works that convey a vibrant, chaotic, and dangerous reality. Jean-Charles Hue’s camera clings to bodies, embraces danger, positioning itself at the eye of the storm and capturing forcefully embodied images.
Quoi de neuf docteur ?
Produced by Jean-Charles Hue | 2003 | France | 9′
The portrait of Maurice, a young “Yenish” traveller. Maurice loves taunting pitbulls, romping with his nephews and nieces, driving without a licence, and poaching rabbits with his brother. But what he does best is preserve the world of childhood at any price.
Perdonami mama
Produced by Jean-Charles Hue | 2004 | France | 8′
In his truck, Jo listens to traveller song: the story of a man who is in chtar (jail), and who invites a small sparrow to feed at his cell window. He also thinks about his mother who has done all she could to make her son into a good man…
Un ange
Produced by Jean-Charles Hue | 2005 | France | 39′
Fred, a gypsy traveller, earns his living by nicking cars. One day, someone comes to his site and talks to him about the light. After this encounter, Fred is no longer the same, as an angel – his angel – has reached out to him. Saint Teresa of Avila says: “You find God in your cooking pots”, but Fred is searching for his light among the caravans.
Y a plus d’os
Produced by Jean-Charles Hue | 2006 | France | 5′
Everything was to unfold peacefully around the fire, over a glass of “sky”. But the spirit of revenge takes hold of the group and the presence of a gun becomes the subject of a strange incantation in which Death is beckoned, even implored.
L’œil de Fred
Produced by Jean-Charles Hue | 2007 | France | 17′
For once, Fred will sit down at the table. He will tell all, even what he hid from me about the famous spin in a BMW. For the occasion, he spills his guts out onto the table and, as if that’s not enough, he will fling his eyes down too.
La mort vient sans prévenance
Produced by Les Films d’Avalon, Same Player | 2020 | France | 16′
Fred, a 30-year-old gypsy traveller, wakes up at home in the midst of bloody sheets after a long night spent running from the police. He finds his son with a young raclo (non-gypsy) and his wife and young daughters.
Carne viva
Produced by Adr Productions, Association HB | 2009 | France | 98′
In Tijuana, on the Mexican border, men and women try to escape solitude and lurking death. A knife made of dog bone, passed from hand to hand, serves as a common thread and draws the phantasmatic, geographical and mental cartography of a city torn apart.
La BM du seigneur
Produced by Les Films d’Avalon | 2010 | France | 84′
Fred Dorkel is a “Yenish”. Feared and respected by his community, he earns his living by stealing cars. One night, his life is turned upside down: an angel appears to him. For Fred, this is the sign of a second chance that he has to take. He decides to settle down, but this choice creates a clash with his family…
Mange tes morts – Tu ne diras point
Produced by Capricci Films | 2014 | France | 94′
Eighteen-year-old Jason Dorkel belongs to the traveller community. He is getting ready to celebrate his Christian baptism when his half-brother Fred returns after several years in prison. Together with their last brother, the impulsive and violent Mickael, the three Dorkels set off for a spin in the world of the “gadjos”.
Emilio
Produced by Jean-Charles Hue | 2000 | France | 6′
Emilio had lived here in Barcelona and is a friend. Today, his silhouette, always dressed in his stage costume walking down La Rambla is still remembered. He is a flamenco singer and a man who has always wanted to see life through the prism of his art.
Pitbull carnaval
Produced by Michto Production | 2006 | France | 34′
A journey with Mario, who dedicates his life to pitbull training.
Tijuana jarretelle, le diable
Produced by Jean-Charles Hue | 2011 | France | 8′
Immersion in the erotic heat and simmering violence of Tijuana through the story of a strange couple, El Tuerto (the one-eyed) and his wife, Pretty Eyes.
Topo y Wera
Produced by Spectre Productions | 2018 | France | 48′
In Tijuana, Topo and Wera get by on their ingenuity and petty larceny. The little they earn goes into drugs and slot machines. She, Wera, was raised in Los Angeles and he, Topo, has spent his life in gangs. Time passes and disappears, and soon Vera’s love for Topo is no more than a bitter memory…
Tijuana Tales
Produced by Les Films d’Avalon | 2017 | France | 12′
A man returns to Tijuana hoping to find a woman who has lost herself in drugs and the night and who seems to have become a “white lady”, a phantom creature between sky and earth.
The Soiled Doves of Tijuana
Produced by The Dark, Actarus | 2022 | France | 81′
I’ve been going regularly to Tijuana for over 15 years and, there, I always encounter the ghostly silhouettes of women who haunt the place. I call them “the white ladies”.