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In January 2004, while the French government was debating banning religious and political symbols from schools, Catherine Balet began taking pictures of signs, labels, codes and icons that have social and aesthetic significance in the teenage world. As she extended that project from Paris to London, Berlin, Barcelona and Milan, it quickly became a record of the dress codes in European schools, a reference work on tribal subdivisions there. Teenagers in their struggle for identity and self-esteem, troubled by an urgent desire to be different, usually adopt the codes of a group, often inspired by music trends and always tweaked by circumstance, conscious individuation or both. In each city, Balet discovered the same music, fashion, brands, bands and labels. Only the details differed, reflecting the complexity of the history of each country or the influence of its migrant populations. In London and Barcelona, where the uniform is a school institution, details are all that students have by which to define themselves: Balet captures the way’s in which these students customize their outfits. Her large, richly descriptive portraits, set in the street, combine documentary style with poetic sensibility, capturing the complex mix of youth and age inherent to adolescence, its fragility and determination, and the era’s new mix of global homogenization and local individuation.

You can buy “Identity” here

Pablo is a lonely boy of 13, with a troublesome past. Much of the reasons for this remains a mystery until a stranger arrives on the scene. An oddly calm and well-dressed man ‘meets’ the young boy on a quiet country road, where, supposedly, his car just broke down. The stranger appears, nonetheless more interested in the boy than attempting to solve his problem. Despite at first maintaining a precautious distance, despite warnings from certain villagers, Pablo slowly loses all his protective layers, opens up to the man, and gradually sees in him a friend.

I wanted this film to be nothing else than a reference point in the world of film, in terms of hyper indie films. I wanted to give back what indie films so rarely ever attempt to portray: visual poetry. – Iván Noel, Director

En Tu Ausencia (In you Absence) covers very vividly the transition of childhood to adolescence, the discovery (the confusion) of sexuality (also through his only friend, the shameless 15 year old Julia), and the importance that seemingly meaningless events can take in the mind of a growing boy. From a friend, to close friend, the boy finally sees in this stranger, the one person who appears to understand him : almost a replacement father. And thus his affection for this man grows as he nears, quite unknowingly, blindly towards the tragedy that is to mark him permanently.

He had no problems (nor did his parents) with masturbation scenes and nude scenes, which is no big deal in coming-of-age-films in Spain. Spain is still a far cry from the absurd repressions of neighbouring countries. – Iván Noel about Gonzalo, the leading actor, in an interview with Destroyer