Program 1
Q. & A.
Moderator: Binita Mehta: Professor of French Emerita at Manhattanville College where she taught courses in French language, literature, and film.
Guests : Johanna Makabi : Filmmaker of Grâce
Program 1
Grâce - Johanna Makabi, 2022, 14’, France
Grâce, 8 years old, hates her neighborhood, she hates cheerleading and today she decided to join her father in space.
Trumpets in the sky - Rakan Mayasi,2022, 15’, Syria, Lebanon,
Lebanon today - the war in Syria is next door. A once dreamy and undisturbed meadow changes drastically in the eyes of Boushra, 14years - who returns from work picking potatoes to learn that her childhood will soon come to an end. With an absent father, her mother sells her into marriage. As she tries to connect with her decaying hometown, Boushra fears the impending possibilities of departure and becoming a woman.
D’un feu secret - A.T.Bonaiuto, 2023, 4’, USA
“D’un feu secret” is a Baroque piece by Michel Lambert written in the 1600s. and interpreted by Cécile McLorin Salvant (franco-american jazz vocalist)
L’apatride - Tawfik Sabouni, 2023,26’, Belgique
When Salma, a Syrian refugee, gets her residence permit, she discovers that the Belgian authorities have withdrawn her nationality and that of her son. Salma then fights for the recognition of their lost nationality.
The truth about Alvert, the last dodo -Nathan Clément, 2022, 17’, Réunion-France/Switzerland
On the island of Reunion, Lunet and his grandfather Dadabé set on a quest to turn a hen into a dodo bird, whose magic feathers might save the boy’s seriously ill mother.
The messenger of God - Amina Abdoulaye Mamani, 2022, 26, Niger/Burkina-Faso
The messenger of God is chosen by chance and subjected to funeral rites.
Fatima, twelve years old is left in a market, wearing an explosive belt that will detonate in ten minutes to kill the enemies of Allah.
For nine minutes, it's an inner journey during which she passes from the present to the past. Fatima remembers that her mother sells in this market.
Open sky - Annie St Jean, 2023, 3’, Québec/Canada
The end only announces a beginning. A man stands at the edge of life, ready to fiercely embrace the journey that takes shape before him in the form of a loop. Because even when routine appears to be inevitable, its thousand and one tones are revealed, joyful like a nursery rhyme.
Ciel Ouvert by Annie St-Jean offers a carousel of film photographs gradually illuminated with watercolor and a reflection on the unnoticed charms of verbal (text by
Andrée-Anne Fréchette) and bodily (performance by Rémy Girard) languages.Open sky
Madeleine - Raquel Sancinetti, 2023, 15’, Québec/Canada
Every week, Raquel (41), a Brazilian immigrant, visits her friend Madeleine (107) in her retirement home in Montreal and tries to convince her to get out of the house. The senior woman refuses she has nothing else to do outside. Raquel doesn't give up and finds a way to bring Madeleine with her on a road trip to the sea. The result is a journey that plays with reality and fiction and brings a reflection on life, death, and the certainty that there is always something to learn along the way.
