FRANCE
film festival
NOIRe
festival de films
BLACK
film festival
FRANCE
festival de films
Art: La Mariam by Alexis Peskine
A Visual Archive:
France Noire/Black France
Film Festival/Festival de Film
May 21-23, 2010
Forum des Images & US Ambassador’s Residence
in honor of Darling Légitimus and Jenny Alpha
Paris, France
Conceived and directed by Trica Keaton w/Co-Organizers Arlette Frund,
Maboula Soumahoro, Mariquian Ahouansou, and Vanderbilt University
Summary
-
The festival seeks to highlight the diversity of representations and lived experiences within the African diaspora. It aims to showcase the documentary richness of this cinematic field centered on Black people in France, as well as the cultural and social transformations they have brought to the métropole and French territories. The program is organized around three themes: Black identities; France as a “promised land”; and the intellectual, cultural, and artistic sphere. The first theme is conceived as a reflection, illustrated with examples that encompass racial and social questions, including the position of women. The “France as promised land” theme highlights the powerful appeal that France continues to exert in the imagination of migrants. “Jazz, intellectuals, hip-hop culture” underscores the importance of encounters and collaborations that, since the 1920s, have contributed to the creation of an intellectual and musical life in France.
The France Noire program…follows the colloquium of the same name, which took place at the Institute for Scholars of Columbia University at Reid Hall (Paris) in June 2008, organized by Tyler Stovall, Trica Keaton, Marcus Bruce, and Fred Constant.
• CELEBRATING BLACK PRESENCE IN FRENCH CINEMA • CELEBRATING BLACK PRESENCE IN FRENCH CINEMA
• CELEBRATING BLACK PRESENCE IN FRENCH CINEMA • CELEBRATING BLACK PRESENCE IN FRENCH CINEMA
Euzhan Palcy
The opening ceremony of the France Noire Festival will be hosted by Euzhan Palcy, the acclaimed filmmaker and guest of honor, together with Jean-Yves de Lépinay, Director of Programming at Forum des Images.
La Noire de... d’Ousmane Sembène, le vendredi 21 mai à 17h00
PROGRAM
Original program HERE.
IN THE PRESENCE OF THE DIRECTOR
Siméon by Euzhan Palcy
with Jocelyne Béroard, Jean-Claude Duverger
Martinique–France / fiction, 1993 / color / 1h55 (35mm)
Siméon and Isidore shared a dream: to create Antillean music that would become famous around the world. Siméon dies suddenly, but thanks to ten-year-old Orélie, he returns—not in his body, but in spirit—and the dream continues.
Friday, May 21 at 2:30 p.m.
IN THE PRESENCE OF FABIENNE AND VÉRONIQUE KANOR
Black Girl (La Noire de…) by Ousmane Sembène
with Mbissine Thérèse Diop, Anne-Marie Jelinek
France–Senegal / fiction, 1966 / b&w / 59 min (35mm)
Diouana, a young Senegalese maid, follows her employers from Dakar to the Côte d’Azur. But in France, Diouana sees nothing beyond the four walls of her employers’ authoritarian household. Little by little, she decides to assert her freedom—a choice that leads to tragic consequences. Winner at the Cannes and Carthage festivals, La Noire de… is considered the first truly “Black African” film.
Preceded by:
La Noiraude by Fabienne and Véronique Kanor
with Menelik, Firmine Richard, Richard Montoute
France / fiction, 2004 / color / 30 min (video)
She is Guadeloupean. She is Parisian. She dreams of returning home—though she’s no longer sure which home that is. As a child, she was called la noiraude... The film explores the identity of a young Black woman in France.
Friday, May 21 at 5:00 p.m.
ROUND TABLE
Black Presence in French Cinema
Duration: 1h30
Accompanied by a film montage entitled France Noire: The Seventh Art in Black, composed of excerpts that highlight the visibility and representation of Black actors in French cinema and television, including work by Josephine Baker, Darling Légitimus, Jenny Alpha and many more.
Participants:
Eriq Ebouaney (actor), Mata Gabin (actor and singer), Pascal Légitimus (actor and director), Yasmine Modestine (actor and singer), Euzhan Palcy (director), Luc Saint-Eloy (director and actor).
Moderators:
Dieudonné Gnammankou (historian, editor) and Betty Sulty Johnson (co-founder, Images of Black Women Film Festival – London).
Free admission subject to seating capacity.
Friday, May 21 at 7:00 p.m.
PARIS PREMIERE:
IN THE PRESENCE OF THE DIRECTOR
Harlem in Montmartre by Dante James
U.S. / documentary / French subtitles / 2009 / color & b&w / 1h22 (video)
How African American artists and musicians shaped the history of jazz in Montmartre between the two world wars. The film explores the lives, contributions, and influences of both well-known and lesser-known figures, including James Reese Europe, Josephine Baker, Sidney Bechet, Bricktop, and Eugene Bullard.
In partnership with Idéale Audience / ARTE
Friday, May 21 at 9:00 p.m.
IN THE PRESENCE OF MANTHIA DIAWARA
Rouch in Reverse by Manthia Diawara
with Jean Rouch
Mali / documentary / French subtitles / 1995 / color / 52 min (video)
Diawara engages with Jean Rouch on questions surrounding the representation of the African continent through a series of discussions on identity, belonging, and citizenship. The film offers an original reflection on how these representations endure yet are continuously challenged in an increasingly multicultural France.
Profit and Nothing But! by Raoul Peck
France–Belgium / documentary / 2000 / color / 57 min (video)
“I come from a country where numbers no longer mean anything […]. Like two-thirds of a planet sold for a handful of dollars.” Several years before the 2008 financial crisis, Raoul Peck—speaking from Port-à-Piment, a small village in Haiti—offers a prescient meditation on the idea of profit in the age of globalization. A powerful anti-capitalist manifesto.
Saturday, May 22 at 2:30 p.m.
IN THE PRESENCE OF THE DIRECTOR
No Fear, No Die by Claire Denis (unconfirmed)
with Isaach de Bankolé, Alex Descas, Jean-Claude Brialy
France / fiction / 1990 / color / 1h30 (35mm)
Originally from Benin and the French Caribbean, Dah and Jocelyn work for a restaurateur who runs illegal cockfights on the outskirts of Rungis. Blending the men’s daily training with the escalating confrontations between the main characters, Claire Denis’s third feature—shot in a suburban no-man’s-land—depicts the violence of human relationships with striking restraint.
Saturday, May 22 at 5:00 p.m.
ROUND TABLE
Fear of a Black Planet?
duration: 1h30
A conversation on the representation of Black artists and Black worlds in hip-hop music videos, bringing together artists and directors to discuss the theme.
Participants:
Chris “Tchiembé” Macari and Ibrahim Koudié (directors), ToMa (photographer)
Moderators:
Fatou Biramah (writer, journalist) and Maboula Soumahoro (associate professor).
Preceded by:
Excerpt from the documentary Je rap donc je suis by Philippe Roizès, with IAM, La Rumeur, Ministère A.M.E.R., Fonky Family
(1999, 25 min).
Free admission subject to seating capacity.
Saturday, May 22 at 7:00 p.m.
IN THE PRESENCE OF THE DIRECTOR
Aliker by Guy Deslauriers (sous réserve)
with Stomy Bugsy, Xavier Thiam, Lucien Jean-Baptiste
France / fiction / 2009 / color / 1h50 (35mm)
A film set in the 1930s around the André Aliker affair. Aliker, a journalist at the newspaper Justice, was found murdered on the beach of Fond Bourlet in Case-Pilote (Martinique). The case was initially presented as a suicide, then as a killing carried out by people from another island. More than a courtroom drama, the film offers a portrait of a remarkable journalist and the challenges of the profession.
Saturday, May 22 at 9:00 p.m.
***
L’Afrance by Alain Gomis
with Djolof Mbengue, Delphine Zingg, Samir Guesmi
France / fiction / 2001 / color / 1h30 (35mm)
El Hadj has left his family and fiancée in Senegal to study in Paris. Once he completes his degree, he intends to contribute to the development of his country. However, he meets Myriam and misses his appointment at the prefecture to renew his residency papers. Alain Gomis addresses themes of uprooting and the identity wounds left by colonialism with remarkable precision.
Silver Leopard for Best First Feature, Locarno Festival 2001.
Sunday, May 23 at 2:30 p.m.
IN THE PRESENCE OF MAMADOU DIOUF, historian;
BOB SWAIM, director,
AND SÉBASTIEN DANCHIN, historian and producer
Black Enlightenment (Lumières noires) by Bob Swaim
with Alioune Diop, Léopold Senghor, Aimé Césaire
France / documentary / French subtitles / 2006 / color / 52 min (video)
In 1956, Paris hosted the first International Congress of Black Writers and Artists, bringing together African and African diaspora intellectuals from three continents on the eve of African independence movements. The goal was to give voice to a shared vision. These three days of debate forever transformed Black identity in the eyes of the world.
Preceded by: Paris of Négritudes by Jean Schmidt
France / documentary / 1970 / b&w / 28 min (16mm)
Interviews with immigrants and nighttime images of Barbès and the Goutte d’Or, along with texts by the Bambara poet Moussa Samaké, highlight both the difficulties Africans face integrating into France and the affirmation of their cultural identity.
Sunday, May 23 at 4:30 p.m.
CINÉ-CONCERT
SCOTT PAULSON AND HIS ENSEMBLE
(percussion, piano, and saxophone)
with Bennetta Jules-Rosette, sociologist (University of California)
The Siren of the Tropics by Henri Etiévant and Mario Nalpas
France / silent fiction / 1927 / b&w / 1h10 (35mm)
The story of a young Caribbean adventurer who falls in love with an explorer and follows him to Paris. The film also marks Josephine Baker’s screen debut.
Sunday, May 23 at 7:00 p.m.
FESTIVAL AWARD CEREMONY
SCREENING OF THE AWARD-WINNING
FEATURE FILM
The France Noire Festival issued an open call for films, inviting filmmakers to submit works—of any length—on the central theme: “Black Presence in France.” A jury of professionals selected two short films and one feature film, the latter of which will be presented here in a public screening.
In the presence of the jury members (to be confirmed).
Sunday, May 23 at 9:00 p.m.
postscript
Black france
The Black France festival shines a spotlight on films focused on the past and contemporary experiences of French people and migrants of near or distant African origin. France has recently seen major changes and a flourishing of artistic, cultural, intellectual, political, religious, and social activity among populations who identify — and are identified — as “Black people in/of France.” Individuals and groups have generated growing interest in issues related to the memory of slavery, post-colonial experiences of integration, and social equality.
L’Afrance d’Alain Gomis, le dimanche 23 mai à 14h30