Catacombes / Webdocumentary
Interactive webdocumentary. There are 300 km of underground galleries running beneath Paris. Entry is forbidden but there’s a group of people who frequent this ‘sub-urban’ landscape, exploring the tunnels waist-deep in water, even organising raves in the deserted underground WW2 bunkers. For the last two years we have been working on a project called ‘Catacombes, Paris Underground Stories’. It’s an interactive documentary that explores the world 30 metres below the surface of the city of Paris. What makes people go down there, what do they do every night?
The viewer can choose his or her own route, led by a group of explorers.Catacombs is an interactive web documentary designed to be distributed on the Internet, taking advantage of the opportunities that new technologies offer for the development of new narrative models. The audience is at the centre of the story and able to make decisions that influence the progress of the narrative. The viewer can decide at any moment what to watch, or what path to follow. Interaction is available throughout the documentary, and the interface constantly offers choices: which way do you want to go?
EP.1 Un mundo paralelo
EP. 2 La rehabilitación
EP. 3 Perderse bajo suelo
EP.4 Cementerios bajo tierra
EP. 5 Bajo los adoquines, la playa
EP.6 Raves subterráneas
EP. 7 Entrar a las catacumbas
EP. 8 Salir del subsuelo
EP. 9 La profanación
Our narrators are a group calling themselves the Cataphiles, the people who hang out down here. The Cataphiles don’t just come to visit, they look after the place. Sometimes they fix it up a bit or organise cultural events inside the catacombs. They participate in the documentary without revealing their identity because just being here is against the law. The Cataphiles explain their underground world through their own personal experiences, which both reflects and contrasts with the parallel society above ground.
