Special film series : "Blackness in French and Francophone Film"

The Paris Center will co-sponsor a film series presented by the Columbia Maison Française, co-sponsored by School of the Arts and curated by Nora Philippe with the participation of Maboula Soumahoro.

By
Joelle Theubet
November 09, 2018

France doesn’t have an equivalent word for speaking about “blackness” and has just removed the word “race” from its Constitution. However, a new generation of black French women directors is creating documentaries, news reports, and fiction films about the black experience in all its plurality, from more recent immigration of Africans to France, to intimate searches for genealogical identity in the Caribbean, to feminist and political struggles in today’s troubled times.

Around a selection of films directed by award-winning artists of African descent, this series will explore experiences of mostly female subjects and characters in France, but also in French-speaking Africa and in the diaspora, in the U.S. and the Caribbean.

Find the full program here. Please note that screenings are free and open to the public with English subtitles and take place at the Maison Française (Buell Hall, East Gallery) and at the Lenfest Center for the Arts (Katharina Otto-Bernstein Screening Room, 615 W. 129th Street).

Columbia University co-sponsors of Blackness in French and Francophone Film: Maison Française; School of the Arts; Institute for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality; Institute for African Studies; Columbia Global Centers/Paris; European Institute; IRAAS (Institute for Research in African-American Studies) and Society of Fellows/Heyman Center for the Humanities. Film series presented with support from the Paul LeClerc Centennial Fund, Cultural Services of the French Embassy, la Scam, and the Knapp Family Foundation.