Program 3
Q. & A.
Moderator: Binita Mehta: Professor of French Emerita at Manhattanville College where she taught courses in French language, literature, and film.
Guests : Zoel Aeschbacher: Filmmaker of Fairplay
Johanna Makabi: Filmmaker of A laundry day.
Joseph Pomp: a film scholar and critic and works as an editor at Harvard University Press.
Program 3
The big arch - Camille Authouart, 2023, 12’, France
7.30 am, it's rush hour at La Défense. Footsteps echo on the pavement, everyone knows where they are going, no one needs their eyes to guide them, and the smell of takeaway coffee wafts through the air. Silhouettes slip between the legs of the Red Spider, yet no one seems to notice her. Sitting at the top of the steps of the Grande Arche, I draw. I thought I knew the area but I realized I was wrong.
Invincible - Vincent René-Lortie, 2022, 30’, Québec/Canada
Inspired by a true story, Invincible recounts the last 48 hours in the life of Marc-Antoine Bernier, a 14-year-old boy on a desperate quest for freedom.
From one painting… to another - George Schwizgebel, 2023, 3’, Switzerland-France
Two paintings that relate to each other, or the representation of a woman of color in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Olympia (1863) by Edouard Manet is a painting in which we see a naked woman staring confidently at the viewer and behind her a black maid holding a bouquet of flowers no doubt offered by an admirer.
In reference to Olympia, Félix Vallotton painted La Blanche et la Noire (1913) which shows a young naked white woman, and next to her a dressed black woman, probably her partner, who is smoking a cigarette.
Welcome little one - Islam Abdel Gawwao, 2023, 12’, Egypt.
Adam is an eight years old boy who finds himself in the street without parents and his only friend Pluto, his loyal dog, who goes to an animal shelter. He tries to bring him back in various ways.
Ti Toya - Michel Dessources, 2022, 11’, Haïti
When a stranger crosses the path of Ti Toya, a young country girl, he tries to take advantage of her as easy prey, but quickly learns that she is not who he thinks she is, and this was the worst mistake of his life.
Fairplay - Zoel Aeschbacher,2022, 17’, Switzerland
A teenager in search of recognition, a worker ready to do anything to hit the jackpot, a senior executive at the end of his career who wants to prove to himself that he is still alive. Three characters who are losing speed on the competition highway...
La vie en prose - Cidic Frank Mboumi Kokmegne, 2022, 9’, Cameroon
Dream is a young man passionate about art and motivated by the burning desire to become a recognized painter. After a long journey strewn with failures, he found himself on the verge of depression, immersed in a multitude of questions. One day during a visit to an art museum, Dream is transported inside a painting. There, he undertakes a fantastic journey at the end of which he promises to hold on to his dream.
A laundry day - Johanna Makabi, 2022, 3’, France
Today Fatou goes to the laundromat in Harlem and meets a young man.
A Laundry Day is a 5 min short shot in Harlem in 2022. It's an homage to the French New Wave and a fun way to regard American society through the lens of a French African woman. A classic story with a political twist...
Those without whom the earth will not be the earth -David Shongo, 2022, 5’, Democratic Republic of the Congo
In the town of Kipushi, next to the large city of Lubumbashi, we discover an artificial desert which is the result of years of pollution due to the exploitation of Katanga's first mine. This barren land, colored with different shades of pastel and decorated with waste, is distinguished by its paradoxical beauty.
Ya la terre (This is Land) - Nadine Otsobogo, 2023, 9’, Gabon
THIS IS LAND, tells the story of the link between Brice, a young Gabonese farmer, and the
land he cultivates in the surroundings of Libreville. An environment where increasing urbanization threatens agricultural land. Through its narration, the film explores themes of transmission and the relationship between man and nature, offering a view into the daily life of a farmer in the city. Ya la terre, tells the story of the relationship with the land of Brice, a young Gabonese farmer who does peri-urban agriculture in Libreville.
La bride (The dog’s leash) - Nicolas Piret, 2022, 3’, Belgium.
The bell tower rings, and the birds fly away.
In the countryside on the outskirts of a small village, a dog attached to a huge rope watches them disappear into the horizon.
It's time for him to leave, gallop across the fields, where his rope will take him.
