Over 3 consecutive Mondays at 7:30 PM, on February 28, March 7, and March 14, the Williams Department of Romance Languages will screen 3 recent French and Francophone films at Images Cinema that center the perspectives of Black and Indigenous women on the concept of belonging, love and family.
❖ February 28: Nous/We by Alice Diop (2020)
❖ March 7: Une histoire à soi/A Story of One’s Own (2021) by Amandine Gay. Q&A with director Amandine Gay and editor, sound engineer and producer Enrico Bartolucci after the film showing and lecture the next day.
❖ March 14: Kuessipan (2019) by Myriam Verreault (written by Naomi Fontaine)
Nous/We
“The RER B is an urban train that traverses Paris and its environs from north to south. Multi-award-winning documentary filmmaker Alice Diop takes us through these suburban spaces and confronts us with some of the faces and stories of which they are composed. […] Divisions haunt France’s present. But the human urge to give as well as to receive stubbornly creeps into every situation, observed or triggered. Could this be the one thing that still keeps a nation together?”
Une histoire à soi/A Story of One’s Own
“Filmmaker and activist Amandine Gay was listed under ‘X’ as a child in France […]. ‘A Story of One’s Own’ passes the mic to five people who, like herself, carry in themselves the experience of being adopted. Separated not only from their unknown biological parents and countries of birth but also from the story about themselves. However, some of the blank pages are filled in by Gay’s both emotional and reflective film, where the five protagonists step forward and introduce us to the otherwise overlooked nuances in the discussion of international [and transracial] adoption – and the experience of knowing it from the inside. Love, doubt, anger and forgiveness. Strong feelings, which the five people we meet nonetheless experience in their own way, while they with an at times almost incomprehensible openness share their own stories with us. Their honesty and choice of words are what makes ‘A Story of One’s Own’ a film that invites us to empathise and understand them across our differences, no matter who we are – and how well we know our own story.”
Kuessipan
“Adapted from Naomi Fontaine’s acclaimed novel, Kuessipan is Myriam Verreault’s first narrative feature. In a Quebec Innu community, Mikuan (Sharon Fontaine-Ishpatao) and Shaniss (Yamie Grégoire) struggle to maintain their close friendship when they clash over their diverging ambitions. When Mikuan falls in love with a white boy and starts to consider a life beyond their tiny reserve, her bond with Shaniss and her family is put to the test. A coming-of-age story told with humour, tenderness, and heartbreak, Kuessipan is a poignant exploration of evolving friendship and dreams, and the bonds that will forever root us in our culture. Kuessipan is told through an Indigenous lens yet remains relevant to us all as we discover the power of community — along with the individual strength it takes to follow our own path.”
Megamenu Social