High Museum Francophone Film Series special preview

March 4, 6:55 AMAtlanta Movies ExaminerRyan McNally

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Foreign film fans are in for a treat with the High Museum of Art’s “Films from Africa and the African Diaspora” series, which runs from March 6 through 28. Featuring movies from Benin, Haiti and Burkina Faso, the series studies the cultural heritage of these former French colonies. Africa Paradis, Dreams of Dust and Eat, For This Is My Body are all recent releases, and two of the three have garnered nominations for awards.

“France’s former colonies in Africa and the Caribbean are closely tied to its rich cinematic tradition,” says Linda Dubler, the High Museum’s Curator of Media Arts. “Funding and artistic support have nurtured the production of Francophone films from Africa since the 1960s. Despite political and economic turmoil, Haiti has also made its mark, contributing its own directorial voices to the dialogue between Africa, the African Diaspora and France. The featured filmmakers in this series see their medium as a vehicle not just for entertainment but also for social critique, visual experimentation, and personal expression. All three films are unforgettable exemplars of film’s relevance and power.”

Here’s the lineup for the High Museum’s Francophone Film Series (all films are in French with subtitles), complete with synopses, trailers and more:

Africa Paradis (2006, 86 min.)

The High Museum’s “Films from Africa and the African Diaspora” series launches with the Friday, March 6, screening of Africa Paradis. In this satire from Benin director Sylvestre Amoussou, once-prosperous Westerners flock to the United States of Africa in search of freedom from social upheaval. By following the flight of an educated, middle-class French couple to the affluent U.S.A., Amoussou delivers a critique of the cultural and social interactions between Europe and Africa. Internet Movie Database user rating: 4.4

Africa Paradis official trailer (in French): 
 

Eat, For This Is My Body (2007, 105 min.)

On Saturday, March 14, the High Museum’s film series will highlight Haitian writer and director Michelange Quay’s film, Eat, For This Is My Body, which creates a portrait of Haiti and its enduring colonial history. Filmed in Port-au-Prince, Quay communicates his fascination with the island’s legacy and culture through imagery rather than narrative. The avant garde Eat, For This Is My Body received the Grand Jury Prize in the Ibero-American Feature competition at the 2007 Miami Film Festival and garnered a positive review from Variety’s Eddie Cockrell, who described it as “a quietly confident visual poem to Haiti and its turbulent history.” IMDB user rating: 5.4.

Eat, For This Is My Body official trailer:

Dreams of Dust (2006, 86 min.)

The Francophone film series ends on Saturday, March 28, with Laurent Salgues’s film Dreams of Dust, a stirring narrative of the life of a Nigerian peasant who travels to the gold mines of Burkina Faso to escape a haunting past. The drama establishes a shared conflict between its characters through the common struggle to survive and thrive in spite of economic and social downturn. Leaving his past behind, Mocktar travels to the mines of Essakane and meets Coumba, a young mother who inspires him to pursue future goals. Written and directed by Salgues, Dreams of Dust was an official 2007 Sundance Film Festival selection of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. IMDB user rating: 7.0.

All films in the High Museum’s “Films from Africa and the African Diaspora” series begin at 8 p.m. and are screened in the Richard H. Rich Theatre. The theatre is located in the Memorial Arts Building, adjacent to the High at Peachtree and 15th Streets in midtown Atlanta. All films are in French with English subtitles.

To purchase tickets in advance, go to www.High.org, visit the Woodruff Arts Center Box Office or call 404-733-5000. Tickets for all shows are $7 general admission and $6 for students, seniors and Museum members. Patron-level members enter free. Tickets may also be purchased at the door on the night of the screening.