Je Suis Responsable

“I forget that I’m responsible. But I am.”

Je Suis Responsable offers to the viewer a poetic, poignant experience while posing questions over humanity and existence. It’s the latest fashion film by award winning director Enrico Poli for the emerging brand, À forma. It was produced by Manufactory Productions and shot in several locations around Bologna, a town in northern Italy.

Je Suis Responsable (French for “I am responsible”) stands first and foremost for the designers’ statement to produce responsibly. However, the film takes its title from a monologue it quotes and homages. In Godard’s Vivre sa Vie, Anna Karina’s character tells a friend how she feels that “we are responsible for everything we do”. What does it actually mean to say that we are responsible?

The locations where the film is set constantly remind us of the power of nature; that given enough time, nature finds its way through what humans have neglected. It’s key to the central message of the film: artifice is immaterial, things fade, they lose their form and function. Humans are impermanent, only nature continues. It’s the biggest strength we know. Nature is time’s most wonderful and consistent expression.

“What moved us into action was the urgency to translate the global derealisation brought about by the pandemic into a form of art. Coronavirus has shown us how fragile we are and how easily things can fall apart: I can’t help but feel this is a wake up call. As we continue to live through this crisis with an awareness of our own fragility and as scientists warn us of the irrevocable damage Global Warming will have on society, preserving life on this planet has become the defining challenge of our time. It may already be too late to reverse this course, but I firmly believe the least we can do is try.”