Please join us for the 25th Annual Festival of Films in French, running from Feb. 11 to Feb. 20 in-person at the Student Union Cinema.
The films play in French and other languages, but feature subtitles in English. The festival is free and open to the public. It features a mix of nine documentaries, fiction features and several prize winners. All films address in different ways issues of social justice and questions of identity, as refugees, as migrants, as having multiple affiliations, as family members and lovers must travel away or migrate to ensure survival, all while finding themselves. The women directing the films come from Quebec, France and West Africa.
The first weekend, Feb. 11-13, features Québécois films with two documentaries focusing on two Innu women, Josephine Bacon and Natasha Kanapé Fontaine. It’s followed by another documentary about immigrants from around the world learning French with Mme Loiseau in Montreal, and a poignant feature-length adaptation of Antigone, where the family in question is an immigrant family from Algeria.
The environmental film “Water Below,” runs on Wednesday, Feb. 16. They filmed in the Northeast of Niger, among Peuhl women. It follows young girls who takes care of their siblings when their mothers must leave for long months at a time to sustain their families.
On the second weekend, Feb. 18-20, Mati Diop’s “Atlantique” plays. She’s also seen as the daughter in Claire Denis’ “35 rhums.”
On Feb. 19, the festival will feature “Nous / WE” by Alice Diop. It’s a sensitive look at the people living along the North/South RER B at various stops and besides such historic sites as the basilique de St Denis where the kings and queens of France lie in state.
The festival closes with a portrait of Germaine Acogny, the doyenne of African contemporary dance and her lifelong practice.
For more information, visit the Festival of Films in French webpage.
