Billy – Films – Visions du Réel

Lawrence Côté-Collins
Canada | 2024 | 107 min
World premiere
Language : French
Subtitles : English, French

Billy is a film buff who films himself non-stop. During a film shoot, he meets Lawrence Côté-Collins and the two become friends. One night, he assaults her. Years later, in prison for the deaths of two people, Billy is diagnosed with schizophrenia. With the help of the filmmaker, his only remaining relationship apart from his family, his personal archives become an invaluable resource for understanding his illness. A formal deconstruction of schizophrenia through a remarkably open-minded gaze.

"I want to be somebody new" sings Billy, dressed up in his teenage bedroom, in front of his favourite companion: the camera. Without knowing it, he is documenting everything. His lonely youth, his addictions, his desire for fiction and fanciful scenarios. It is only 20 years later, and thanks to the immense strength and friendship of filmmaker Lawrence Côté-Collins, that this material is transformed, allowing Billy to see and understand himself. He is now serving a life sentence for having caused the deaths of two people. Lawrence is the only person he is in contact with, aside from his family. Despite being his victim, and having her own problems. Together they are strong, and their correspondence overcomes everything – taboos, isolation, propriety, violence, relapses. Together, they dissect the archives of their youth and create a new story: this film, dedicated to Billy’s victims, in order to understand and reveal the true nature of paranoid schizophrenia, providing an opportunity to explain. A unique document which formally deconstructs mental illness with genuine emotion.

Anne Delseth

Billy, 2024
Bungalow, 2022
Écartée, 2016
Score, 2011
Fuck That, 2010
Crudités, 2009
Pas de pain pas de gain, 2009

Trailer

Themed walks

Filmmakers or researchers from UNIL will take you on a walk through the streets of Nyon to delve into and deepen your appreciation of this film’s subject. Balade avec Lawrence Côté-Collins, réalisatrice de Billy