le projet
ALL BLOOD RUNS RED* est inspiré de la vie d’Eugene Bullard , le premier pilote de chasse Noir de l’Histoire. Petit-fils d’esclave, voyageur clandestin, héros de Verdun, mascotte du Paris des années folles, jazzman, businessman, ami des grands du monde, champion de boxe, espion au service de la France et précurseur de la cause Noire des années 60... Bullard traverse le XXème siècle, ses drames, ses injustices et ses triomphes, pour devenir finalement un liftier anonyme au Rockefeller Center…
Mais des rencontres éphémères dans ce huis clos aérien vont permettre au vieux héros de revivre les grands moments de son histoire, pour finalement n’en retenir que l’essence : celle d’un homme qui voulait juste être libre, un homme debout.
COMMENT NOUS ALLONS RACONTER EUGENE BULLARD
Le travail d’auteur, face à une biographie, n’est pas de couvrir toute une vie de la naissance à la mort à la Wikipedia. C’est d’en distiller les moments-charnières : où l’existence bascule, où le personnage se trouve à la croisée des chemins, où il doit faire des choix qui impacteront le reste de sa vie et, le plus souvent, celle des autres. C’est dans ces choix que se dessine la mesure d’un homme, sa vérité - et, lors du choix ultime, le sens de sa vie.
Notre film est une fiction largement inspirée d’événements réels.
Nous avons délibérément sélectionné des moments de l’existence de Bullard et en avons extrait, via des scènes fictionnées, ce qui nous semblait être l’enjeu et le sens profond. Bullard lui-même nous aide dans notre tache, car en écrivant son autobiographie quelques mois avant sa mort, il a pris des libertés concernant la véracité de certains épisodes de sa vie (suivant l’exemple de ses amis écrivains Cendrars et Hemingway!). Craig Lloyd, biographe et historien de l’Université de Columbus, a effectué une recherche plus approfondie : si le principal est véridique et que sa revendication au statut de héros est cent fois justifiée, on sait que certains événements ont été omis, exagérés, des dates changées, parfois même des anecdotes inventées. Qui ne voudrait pas romancer un peu ses propres souvenirs ?
Notre but est de raconter Bullard comme sans doute il aurait voulu qu’on le raconte : l’histoire d’un homme qui a suivi son chemin et qui malgré les injustices de l’Histoire, est resté debout, et libre.
The project
ALL BLOOD RUNS RED* is based on the life of EUGENE BULLARD, the first Black fighter pilot in history. Born in America at the turn of the century, this descendant of slaves was in turn a clandestine traveller, a boxing champion in Paris in his teens, a war hero in the Verdun Battle during WWI, a jazz musician and Parisian mascot during the Roaring 20’s, an astute businessman and friend of the greats of this world in the 30’s, a spy at the service of France during the 40’s and civil rights activist back in his home country in the 50’s.
With passion, intensity, a good amount of clairvoyance and unfailing panache, BULLARD crossed the twentieth century as an anonymous hero. Living its dramas, its injustices and triumphs to the full yet ending his life as an elevator operator in no other than the Rockefeller building, NYC.
That closed space of the Rockefeller Center elevator serves as a time capsule, taking us back to the great moments of EUGENE‘s past. In this huis-clos setting, EUGENE BULLARD crosses paths with illustrious secondary characters in a series of chance encounters that trigger flashbacks through the whole of the twentieth Century. And gradually bring to light the essence of his life story: that of the man he so wanted to become, a man who’s colour of skin would be inconsequential to who he is. A free man. A man standing tall.
HOW WE WILL TELL EUGENE BULLARD’S STORY
Faced with such an epic biography, the author’s work cannot – and must not - cover the entire life from birth to death of a character but must highlight key transformative moments. When the character is at a crossroads, faced with difficult, conflicting choices that will impact the rest of his life and, usually, that of others too. It is through these choices that emerges the true measure of a man, his inner truth and, in the end, the meaning of his whole life.
Our film is a fiction largely inspired by true events.
We deliberately selected key moments of BULLARD’s existence and have extracted, via fictional scenes, what seemed to be at stake and the profound meaning the situations convey. And EUGENE BULLARD himself helped us in our task. A few months before his death he put to paper his autobiography taking certain liberties with regards to the veracity of some episodes of his life (following the example of his friends and fellow writers CENDRARS and HEMNGWAY!). CRAIG LLOYD, biographer and historian of the University of Columbus, conducted further research: whereas the basis is true and BULLARD’s self proclaimed status of hero is a hundred times justified, LLOYD did acknowledge that certain events were omitted, overstated, some dates were changed, even some anecdotes were pure invention. But why not romanticize your own memories?
This approach inspired us. Our goal is to tell EUGENE BULLARD’s story as he probably would have liked it to be told: the story of a man who followed his own path and who remained, despite the injustices of history, a free man. A man standing tall.