At 26, Malcolm Kun navigates between acting, directing and drawing. With Gone Park, his first self-produced short film, he lays the foundations of an intimate cinema, crossed by the fear of the blank page, the dynamics of friendship and a strong desire to renew representations on screen. Between feature film ambitions and a critical look at French cinema, meeting with a director in total projection.
HOW DID YOU BUILD YOURSELF ARTISTICALLY ?
I’ve been drawing since I was little. And very early, around 9 years old, I started writing. I wrote scripts that I transformed into comics, manga. It was already staging, but on paper. And then, it was done naturally : filming with my mother’s phone, staging myself with my little sister… The writing brought me to the image, then to acting.
YOU WENT TO A GRAPHIC DESIGN SCHOOL. DID IT HELP YOU ?
Frankly, not so much. It was a period when I was lost after high school. I tested a language college, I lasted a month. Then I worked, put money aside, then I left for Japan… and when I came back, I told myself that I had to do something ‟serious”.
I came across a graphic design school in Bagnolet. I made a loan, 6000 euros for a year — which I’m still repaying. But I didn’t like it. We were put in front of a computer to learn the Adobe suite, and in the end I didn’t understand anything. Everything I know today about Illustrator, Photoshop, I learned on my own the following year. So yes, it was a bit of a gap year where I put money for nothing… but it doesn’t matter, it’s part of the journey.
WHAT DID YOUR YEAR IN TOKYO BROUGHT YOU ?
I did photography, modelling, I helped on projects… but not as a director. On the other hand, humanly, it was incredible. I met a lot of people. And today, I know that I will always go back. Tokyo is intense, noisy, sometimes anxiety-provoking. But Japan makes sense in my journey — like drawing. It also comes from Japanese culture that I have been consuming since childhood, series, movies… It is a goal for me to shoot a movie there one day.
HOW DO YOU MANAGE A JOB ON THE SIDE ?
It’s reality : if you don’t live from your art yet, you work. I write in the public transport. I have a long ride, so on mornings and evenings, I work on my scenarios. And the days off, the same. You take every chance you get to create.
HOW WAS GONE PARK BORN ?
At first, it was a feature film that I started writing around 2022. When I talked about it to Alice Thfoin, my assistant director, she directly told me : « Malcolm, calm down. Make a short first. » And she was right. It forced me to condense my idea in ten minutes.
But it also started with a desire to play. As a black actor in France, you don’t have many interesting roles. So I thought to myself : create your own role, your own project.
« I want to see movies, not just sociological stories. »
HOW MUCH DO YOU LOOK LIKE LEO, THE MAIN CHARACTER OF YOUR SHORT FILM ?
He looks like me in his fears. Leo was born from my angst of the blank page. But in his life, he is very different from me. And I was interested in playing someone who is not me.
IT WAS A GOOD ROLE FOR YOU…
And especially a role that is not trapped in an identity. In France, we lack characters like that. I want to see movies, character studies, not just sociological stories.
HOW WAS THE CASTING ?
I wanted a truth. Actors who understand the project.
For Rachel, it was instantaneous. Inès Boukhelifa, from the tape, we knew. Really. She is an incredible actress. She plays with an accuracy… I learn a lot with her. Frankly, she is an actress to follow, in two years she’ll be everywhere.
For Billy, it was much more complicated. I was looking for an Asian actor, but I didn’t want to limit myself. We received very few profiles, and none really spoke to me. And in fact, I had someone in mind for a long time : Kélian Benamer. I had seen him on social media talking about wanting to act. He reminded me of Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Mysterious Skin. There was something in his face, in his energy. I contacted him, he came from Switzerland to pass the casting. And I trusted my guts — right so.
For Leo’s mother, it was even more complicated. Finding a black actress in her forties is difficult. We ended up finding Assanad Ibouroi through a contact. She sent us a tape… she was stealing the show. Incredible. She came from Marseille for the shooting. I would love her to be in the feature film.
WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE OF THIS PROJECT ?
Time and money. The film costs 5000 euros, including 4000 out of my own pocket. We shot in 4 days, with a volunteer team. It’s intense, it creates crazy energy. But it also means that sometimes you can’t redo a scene. You’re moving forward, even if it’s not perfect.
WHAT WERE YOUR INFLUENCES ?
Mysterious Skin by Gregg Araki, it’s my favourite movie. Waves by Trey Edward Shults too, especially for its poetry. And Andrea Arnold, the director of Bird and Fish Tank, for her way of filming and representing reality on screen.
On the music side, my composer Dorian Allali is a genius. I gave him Japanese cinema as a reference, especially Hirokazu Kore-eda — particularly the soundtrack of Shoplifters. We wanted something very poetic, sunny but melancholic.
UNFORTUNATELY, IT DIDN’T GET SELECTED IN FESTIVALS…
It’s part of the game. But the reality is that independent, unproduced/self-produced films have very little space. Receiving a negative response does not mean that your film is bad but it can break a little momentum that you imagined for the rest of your movie’s journey. And so you have to find solutions. That’s a bit what I’m doing now : doing my own promotion, talking to medias, organising screenings… showing my film. I think that in the end, it’s the best gift I can give to myself.
WHAT IS YOUR VIEW ON FRENCH CINEMA ?
French cinema is a cinema that I love. I have the impression that it is much more appreciated abroad than here. The problem with French cinema is that it lacks openness. We don’t highlight enough the new voices, the new faces, especially for POC actors. When you ask someone to name black actors in France, I don’t think anyone can name me five actors. If he does, he will name me someone who comes first from the comedy scene or a musician who went to acting. But a ‟native” actor, someone who comes from the theatre scene or method, people can’t name them in France. It’s systemic, they are not highlighted enough.
« I feel like I’m in my own coming of age. »
AT WHAT STAGE OF YOUR CAREER ARE YOU TODAY ?
It’s the beginning, but I’ve been working on this dream of being an actor and director for almost 10 years. I perfected my art, I took classes, I wrote, I directed, I talked to a lot of people. And today, with Gone Park, I feel a passage. I feel like I’m in my own coming of age, there is something beginning.
AND NOW ?
The feature film of Gone Park. I must. I’ve been working on it for 5 years. I want it to look like me, I want it to look like the people around me. It would be a movie with new faces and beautiful themes. I want to talk about youth, family, creation.
I will even try the festivals again with the short film. I’m not sending it back where I already sent it last year but in other small festivals. It’s still a good stepping stone for a movie.
Before embarking on a feature film, I would like to make a second short film. I feel that I still need a test project, for two reasons. First, I would like it to be produced and financed, in order to benefit from the support of a production company and, perhaps, increase our chances at being selected in festivals. Then, this short — which has nothing to do with Gone Park — would allow me to show more of what I am capable of. Whether technically or in writing, I want to push the cinematography of my projects further. It will necessarily be an asset for what’s next, especially for the feature film.
WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE LIKED TO KNOW BEFORE STARTING TO DIRECT GONE PARK?
That you can’t create alone. A scenario, for an author, is sacred : you are afraid of saying too much, of having your idea stolen, or even of talking too much about it to the point of detaching yourself from it. But you have to get over that. You have to share your projects. That’s how you move forward.
ONE LAST WORD ?
With Gone Park, I want to tell a timeless story. Everything that is transition, age of doubt, blank page syndrome, are important topics to tell. I want art to be a unifying point in which we can identify — not only for artists. I want to tell a universal youth.
Meet Malcolm Kun for a screening of Gone Park this Tuesday, March 31 at the Hasard Ludique cinema. Free admission on registration.
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