Clara is a director, actress and contemporary dancer based in Montreal. Born in Marseille, France, she studied acting and dance in Paris, graduating from the Cours Florent and obtaining a master’s degree in theatre studies from the Sorbonne Paris III. She moved to Montreal in 2016 and learnt film studies at the University of Montreal. Then she entered the Conservatory of Dramatic Art of Montreal, from which she graduated in 2020. For the past 3 years, she has performed in different dance and theatre shows, films, music videos and TV series. She has directed several dance videos and her first fiction short film : Memento Mori. Her artistic works cross disciplinary boundaries between performative arts, and are characterized by strong feminist awareness and sensibility.

Memento mori is a Latin phrase that means “Remember you must die”. It gave its name to a painting genre, also known as “Vanities”, which represents the ephemeral aspect of life with different symbols : skull, juicy fruits, cut flowers, soap bubble, hourglass, lit candles, but also world maps, musical instruments… These assortments make the viewer reflect upon his own condition of mortal. For example, fruits are represented both appetizing and overripe – even rotting – in order to suggest the fleeting nature of earthly pleasure. With my short film, my aim is to use this aesthetic to get free from a stressful representation of death. I'd like to juxtapose sensuality and macabre to celebrate life and death at the same time. This discrepancy can also generate a certain form of quirky humor : death is not taboo anymore, it blends into the daily life of a young girl and creates odd situations. Thus she’ll go through a new sort of rite de passage to adulthood. My reflection was inspired by the essay entitled "Que philosopher c'est apprendre à mourir" ("To philosophize is to learn how to die") written by Montaigne, which encourages to get used to the idea of death every day until it becomes a friend. I found an immense comfort in this text, which I wanted to share in my film.