Carnal memories

Happy Birthday to Netribution! 25 years mean a generation of creative folks have dived into independent cinema and exchanged tips and ideas about how to fund a film. How to fund a film, that title alone rings bells in the back of my head.

I remember meeting Nic on my third day in Glasgow. Being gently interviewed over dinner to make sure I could fit in the colorful community of our near-West End flat, proudly sitting on top of Corunna St. Many years later I would learn this area actually had a name: Finnieston, now a much desirable and gentrified spot. What I also didn’t know back then, is that Nic may also have interviewed me for another dark purpose named Netribution.

Did it ever cross his brilliantly utopist mind that I could bring my art to the website? I hope so. Because being involved as a resident of Netribution was pure joy. It’s now been 18 years since I drew my last caricature for Carnal Cinema, managing to illustrate all original articles before flying back to France in order to start my career as a professor of design, leaving behind my dream-like Scottish life as a foreign cartoonist. I kept drawing caricature though and the graphic family grew up over the years, but never as numerous nor wrapped in such a delightfully bizarre way.

Carnal remains deeply emotional to me until today as it is attached to a short period of my life, meeting with people who were ment to become long-lasting friends. Looking back at it now, that slot of time and space was an absolute bliss. I guess Nic still wonders until today why someone allowed to travel the world free of charge (that’s another story) chose to land in Scotland. Maybe I told him that, but let’s take advantage of this invitation to share memories with Netribution to share a piece of memories in case it can inspire anyone.

I moved to Glasgow to leave behind the person I knew I was to try and address the universe with one big-ass question: Who am I appart from that soon-to-become-Art/Design professor? By moving away from myself more than anything else with , life in a back- pack, my plan was to avoid doing what I already knew I could do, looking for any opportunity to try new stuff until the universe responds.

With no agenda nor network, there I was, sitting at my desk drawing cartoons, scanning them onto Nic’s big scanner, that my brand new flatmate had gently lend me as a welcoming gift… Looking at the sketches taped all over the walls as if months had passed, I was forced to acknowledged my natural habitat had crawled back within a week. Netribution and Nic, dressed in a loose bathrobe with shiney pink gardening boots on, were the universe answering my question.

Éric