PROGRAM 3 Sunday April 27th at 7:00 pm at the Maysles Documentary Center
Post-screening discussion + cocktails to follow
Moderator:
Binita Mehta, Professor Emerita of French language, literature and culture at Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY.
Directors:
Elen Sylla Grollimund (Villa Madjo)
Brian Hawkins (Les Vouèsins)
Villa Madjo
Elen Sylla Grollimund
Senegal-France-Belgium
2024, 13 minutes
Starting from the observation that her father -who is white- was born in Africa, and that her mother -who is black- was born in Europe, the director reveals the complex history of her family, from colonialism to their experience of the interracial couple in Europe in the 1950's and 70's.
Eldorado
Mathieu Volpe
Belgium
2024, 19 minutes
Awa, a Cameroonian snow groomer operator, helps a determined young migrant cross the border from Italy to France. As their journey unfolds, a poignant story of redemption emerges amid a web of snow and hidden truths.
Sylvie en Liberté
Sara Bourdeau
Québec/Canada
2024, 24 minutes
Sylvie’s out of jail and back in town. She secretly visits her mother, trying to convince her to leave her violent husband. Facing her mother's refusal, Sylvie stays determined to enjoy every second of her new freedom. She rides her old chopper bicycle across the dirt roads, gets drunk, and thinks about kidnapping a neglected dog. But one thing is on Sylvie's mind: seeing her old lover, Coyote. Time flies, things change, and Sylvie must choose the only freedom available to her.
Le Flou des Arbres
Fanny Perrault
Québec/Canada
2024, 11 minutes
Two incarcerated women in a secured forest of the North of Quebec are subjected to hard labor of reforestation. Confronted to their body’s instrumentalization and its underhand control, they enjoy a little area of freedom they managed to create thanks to a prison guard particularly empathetic towards them.
Les Vouèsins
Brian Hawkins
USA/Missouri-French Créoles
2024, 15 minutes
When he arrived in the summer of 1934, J. M. Carrière described Old Mines as “a straggling, quiet little village in the foothills of the Missouri Ozarks, about sixty-five miles south of Saint Louis. Scattered all along the countryside, I found six hundred French-speaking families living in this community. “Carrière sought out the most accomplished storytellers and meticulously transcribed 73 folktales, documenting both the Creoles’ worldview and the local French language, rapidly falling out of use. When researchers returned to the community in the 1970s, many of the stories Carrière collected had already faded from memory. Others left an indelible impression, such as Frank “Boy” Bourisaw’s Le Petit Bœuf aux cornes d’or.