"Between 1968 and 1970, Sylvina Boissonnas, a young French heiress and patroness of the arts, financed about fifteen films. "Zanzibar" signifies an informal collaboration of about a dozen persons who took their name from the Maoist country of Zanzibar. All of these films reflect in one way or another the heady spirit and times of May 1968. The Zanzibar films make use of a minimal script, non-actors, improvisation, and repetition. The Zanzibar "movement" had very strong ties with the world of fashion (Zouzou, Caroline de Bendern, Nico). They were the dandys of May 1968. Several of the participants spent time in Warhol's Factory in 1966-67. These films represent the French equivalent of the American underground". (Sally Shafto, shortened by Toog).

Many of the Zanzibar movies were screened this week-end during the Film Festival my friend Olivier Pierre's programming in Saint-Denis. The two girls on the photo are Jackie Raynal (filmmaker, monteuse de Rohmer, she also used to run a french cinema in New York) and Caroline de Bendern (model, she was "la Marianne de mai 1968"). The spirit of Zanzibar is closer to me than the french Nouvelle Vague, because it's art, not cinema. It's cinema with no plan de carrière.