Chantal Stoman’s Films Reveal Cinematic Japan and Los Angeles

Description

Invited by Alliance Française Hong Kong, Chantal Stoman will present her films Ōmecittà (2020) and L.A L.A END (2024) on 26 May and 4 June. Ōmecittà explores the cinematic past of Ōme, a small Japanese town once home to three cinemas that mainly screened foreign films. Stoman visited Ōme multiple times to meet older residents, the last witnesses to a bygone era. The film captures the fading legacy of Ōme’s cinema culture and the town’s hand-painted movie posters. Her latest film, L.A L.A END, follows a Marilyn Monroe lookalike through Los Angeles’ decaying theatres and iconic architecture, reflecting on Hollywood’s fading golden age and the complex reality behind its glamour. 

Both films will screen alongside Stoman’s Nouvelle Vague exhibition at La Galerie Paris 1839. Her exhibition pays tribute to the 1950s French New Wave through cinematic fashion photography that explores urban memory and narrative.

Based in Paris, Stoman began her career in fashion photography before shifting to art-related projects in 2005. Her recent works focus on human connections and cultural nuances, with cities and memory as key themes intertwining both the past and present. During her month-long art residency in Hong Kong, she will work on Le Cantique de l’Oiseau, a documentary about city birds.