Beyond the Bolex

Filmmaker Alyssa Bolsey was lucky enough to find what every filmmaker would love to find: an archive of an ancestor who was also a filmmaker. Diving into boxes full of documents, old film reels, vintage cameras, fading photos and technical drawings she discovered the person who first conceived the memorable small-format Bolex cameras, her great-grandfather Jacques Bolsey. Here begins a journey of personal self-discovery, both physical and emotional, that will lead the young director to discover who this forgotten inventor was, what he did, where he lived and worked and why he had to move from one country to another to escape the war. And meanwhile, the viewer has the opportunity to get to know the home movies made by Jacques Bolsey, the nuances of the former big Bolex company, and listen to the filmmakers who worked with them, such as Jonas Mekas or Wim Wenders.