Au Chinatown
in developement
produced by ALVA Film & MISIA Films
pitch RTS Visions du Réél 2025
The Chinatown is the oldest karaoké of Paris. Amidst the large groups of youngsters can be found a handful of older, solitary singers: the regulars. While, for some, karaoke night is a team-building activity, for others, it’s an outlet, an opportunity to express and transform themself, to step out of the shadows and into the spotlight.SynopsisIn the heart of the Belleville, a working class, increasingly gentrified area, in Paris, stands a temple-like venue. The Chinatown is the city’s oldest karaoke. People come there to eat, but above all, to sing. It brings together people from different backgrounds and generations that would rarely meet in the real world. Young and old, privileged or precarious: everyone has access to a stage, a moment of glory. While for groups of youngsters, the karaoké represents a fun outlet or a team-building activity, for its regulars, the stakes are quite different. They come alone, several times a week, dressed in their finest clothes. They take the stage seriously. Singing gives them the chance to exist, to transform themselves, to shine in the gaze of an audience. To step out of the shadows and into the spotlight. The film explores this musical territory, where borders between worlds, between work and leisure, are unsettled ; where moments of emotion and connection emerge through singing, driving the regulars to come back, week after week, throughout the seasons.
Director’s ProfileCallisto Mc Nulty is a French and Swiss filmmaker, born in Paris in 1990. In 2019, she directed the documentary Delphine et Carole, insoumuses, which was selected for numerous international film festivals, including Berlinale Forum, San Sebastián International Film Festival, FIDMarseille, MoMA Doc Fortnight. It won seven awards, including the Best French Documentary Film from the Syndicat Français de la Critique du Cinéma. She was an artist-in-residence at Casa de Velázquez (Académie de France in Madrid) in 2020-2021. During this residency, she developed La Muraille, which will premiere at Visions du Réél in the Burning Lights Competition in 2025.
