IN CINEMA
FRANCOPHONE SHORT FILMS IN HARLEM:
Opening Night Screening & Reception
Tickets: $15 General Admission / $7 Reduced Price
Friday, April 19th at 7PM
Please join us for opening night of Francophone Short Films in Harlem (FSF) 2024! FSF is a festival dedicated to the rich cultural mosaic of the French-speaking countries through film.
SHORTS PROGRAM I:
GRÂCE
Johanna Makabi, 2022, 14’, France
Grâce, 8 years old, hates her neighborhood, hates cheerleading, and today has 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, 14 years old, 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
A music video for “D’un feu secret,” a Baroque piece by Michel Lambert written in the 1600s and sung here by Franco-American jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant.
L’APATRIDE
Tawfik Sabouni, 2023, 26’, Belgium
When Salma, a Syrian refugee, gets her residence permit, she discovers that the Belgian authorities have withdrawn her nationality and that of her son.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 at random and subjected to funeral rites. Fatima, twelve years old, is left at a market, wearing an explosive belt that will detonate in ten minutes to kill the enemies of Allah. For nine minutes, she takes 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. Open Sky by Annie St-Jean offers a carousel of film photographs gradually illuminated with watercolor and a reflection on the unperceived charms of both verbal (with a text by Andrée-Anne Fréchette) and bodily languages (performance by Rémy Girard).
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 old woman refuses, having nothing to do outside. Raquel doesn't relent 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 reflects upon life, death, and the certainty that there is always something to learn along the way.
Post-screening discussion with Binita Mehta (Professor of French Emerita at Manhattanville College) and filmmaker Johanna Makabi, with other speakers + TBA
Opening night reception to follow!
