Let the documentarian’s world be full of surprises
Let the form, the film, grow organically,
so that the maker doesn’t know
its look until it’s finished...
Those images that you have to struggle to find and to make effective will endure, because history endures.
Emile de Antonio

Almost ten years have passed since I began my archaeological exploration of the many faces of the “operators” – these women working in the service of the last century’s communication machines. Having witnessed first-hand the last moments of their history while shooting Hold the Line (52 min, NFB, 2001), I began to sense – upon returning to my initial research – that these archival images of the operators were like phantoms, ranks of smiling simulacra.

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERATOR is a documentary that originally intended to investigate the history of these invisible workers – who were, paradoxically, ubiquitous stars on the corporate screens of their time. However, my research soon put me on the trail of a different sort of production – that of ephemeral films, the company productions of which I’ve since become a true fan. For this experimental R&D project, I identified some 350 films, watched 200 of them, catalogued and digitised 150 titles, and annotated more than 1 500 clips. After seven tours of duty in the editing room – the equivalent of nearly 50 weeks of editing over a four-year period – THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERATOR is finally complete.

A narrative constructed from incredible publicity films that don’t always speak the truth, but that testify to past assumptions that were very real, even “documentary”, the film ultimately revealed itself in the form of a legend. Perhaps it will eventually be thought of as a sort of Atomic Café (USA, Pierce and Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader, 1982) of the telecoms age: a montage film made not from found footage, nor from stock footage, but rather from materials retrieved from national and internet databases and authorised for use, one by one. It’s also a work of reappropriation, a creative recycling for a new media ecology. It exists thanks to the generosity of exceptional cinema artisans and of collaborators who have adventured along with me on this unusual creation which – I hope – will resonate with the responsive chords of the 21rst Century viewer.

August 2004

 

"PHANTOM is as much a film-product as an archival and artistic R&D forever in the works. Its openness as a piece endures more than its finitude as a narrative. To me, it becomes complete only when watched, experimented, 'hyperlinked' by people. And this is where my experience flying with the film in dozens of festivals around the world comes in! Thanks to everyone who have made it possible."

January 2006