The Palace

“Le Palais” is a documentary in virtual reality about the ambition of one man, an industrialist Jean-Baptiste André Godin, who revolutionized housing and living together. Through the years and spaces of the Familistère, Le Palais takes you on a journey through the history of this architectural and social utopia.

It all takes place in Guise, between the town and the Familistère , the site of this exploration. The experience should raise participants’ awareness of the importance of a better distribution of the wealth produced by work, and the urgency of everyone’s commitment to a better future.

The Directors

Gilles Boustani

After a career as a visual photographer, with exhibitions in Paris, Brussels, London and Florence, Gilles Boustani turned his hand to photography, creative video and then cinema. Since 1998, he has devoted himself exclusively to writing and directing. He alternates between audiovisual installations, films and museum installations. Since 2000, when he co-directed an immersive multimedia show for the Pont du Gard, combining 360° film, optical theaters and robotic puppets, he has designed and produced numerous immersive and spectacular audiovisual documentary and fiction projects for museums and exhibitions. The Familistère de Guise and the Institut du Monde Arabe regularly call on him to create innovative and/or interactive installations. In 2012, he designed the film-show for the MuséoParc Alésia. In 2015, he created the audiovisual installations for the ACTE Memorial in Pointe-à-Pitre. For the Mobile/Immobile touring exhibition (Paris, Lille, Geneva…), he is designing and producing an interactive multi-projection installation in 2019, and is currently developing several 360° VR project. Gilles Boustani teaches writing and directing in the Licence de Cinéma program at the Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne and at the École Supérieure d’Arts Graphiques et d’Architecture de la Ville de Paris (EPSAA).