France-Atlanta at the BronzeLens

Where: Georgia Pacific (133 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, GA 30303)
When: November 10, 2012

France-Atlanta 2012 is thrilled to partner once more with the BronzeLens Film Festival. The BronzeLens Film Festival dedicated to bringing national and worldwide attention to Atlanta as an epicenter film and film production for people of color, shares France’s passion for cinema and its commitment to support diversity in film.

France-Atlanta at the BronzeLens puts the spotlight on the “Nouvelle Vague” of up-and-coming Francophone filmmakers, presenting a diverse array of cinema at its best.

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION:
WHEN: Saturday, November 10, 6:00-7:00 p.m.
WHERE: Georgia Pacific Theater (133 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta, GA 30303)

Film selections from Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Senegal will pave the way for a round-table discussion with filmmakers, academics, and other professionals that will discuss and debate questions of identity, migration and return—reoccurring themes that figure so prominently in African diasporic cinema.

Moderator: Dr. Michael Wiedorn, Georgia Tech
Panelists:

FILM SCREENINGS:

One Day screening passes may be purchased for $10 at www.Bronzelensfilmfestival.com

30°Couleur , 2011 (1h32min)

WHEN: Saturday, November 10 at 4:00 p.m.
WHERE: Georgia Pacific Theatre (133 Peachtree Street)

Country of Production: France; Producers: Nicolos Dwal - Adassousky, Yann Zenou, Laurent Zeitoun ; Directors: Lucien Jean-Baptiste, Philippe Larue

Synoposis: Patrick, a brilliant student in his native Martinique, is sent to France at the age of 10 to continue his studies. 30 years later, cut off from his family and tradition, he is now a renowned historian who has forgotten his roots. But when his mother is about to die, he returns to Martinique with his only daughter, arriving right in the middle of Carinval. For three days, accompanied by his childhood friend Zamba, Patrick is swept up in the madness, emotion, and humorous situations— a journey punctuated by the atmosphere and colors of the carnival. Three days that will change his life.


Tey , 2012 (1h26min)
WHEN: Saturday, November 10 at 2:30 p.m.
WHERE: Morehouse College – Sale Hall (830 Westview Drive Southwest )

Country of Production: France/Senegal; Producers: Maïa Cinema, Granit Films, Agora Films, Cinekap; Director: Alain Gomis

Synoposis: What’s the last meaningful thing to do when you have 24 hours to live? After leaving America to return to the land of his birth, Satché walks the streets of his home town, his final moments full of fear but also with a sense of joy.
This film is free and does not require a BronzeLens film screening day pass.


Elza , 2011 (1h20min)
WHEN: Saturday, November 10 at 1:15 p.m.
WHERE: Atlanta Marriott Marquis (265 Peachtree Center Avenue Northeast)

Country of Production: Guadeloupe; Producers: Eric Basset, Gérard Lacroix, Mariette Monpierre, Edgard Tenembaum; Director: Mariette Monpierre

Eldest daughter, Elza, is the first in the family to graduate from college. But Elza breaks her mother’s heart by leaving Paris and running away to their native Guadeloupe in search of a distant childhood memory: the father she barely remembers.

ROUNDTABLE PARTICIPANTS:
Mariette Monpierre. From the beaches of Guadeloupe to the bright lights of the Big Apple, Mariette Monpierre has always viewed her life through lenses. Growing up in the belly of Paris, films fascinated Mariette Monpierre. She studied for her Masters Degree in Television & Languages at l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne and Smith College in Massachusetts then moved to Manhattan to follow her dream of becoming a filmmaker.

She began her career as a producer at BBDO New York, one of the world’s leading advertising agencies, producing commercials for clients such as Pepsi Cola, Frito-Lay, Visa, Campbell’s, Bayer, Pizza Hut, Gillette and FedEx. She is passionate about producing because it allows her to use both her creative and business skills.

Her first independent piece, “Knowledge is Power,” was a documentary commissioned by the New York City Health Department to raise HIV/AIDS awareness. In 2002, her documentary “Sweet Mickey for President?” won Best Documentary at the Reel Sisters Film Festival in New York. Monpierre’s first theatrical work, a short film “Rendez-Vous,” was nominated for the Djibril Diop Mambety Award in partnership with the Directors Fortnight in Cannes.

“ELZA (Le Bonheur d’Elza)” is her first feature length film and won three awards at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles in February 2012: Pan African Film Festival - British Academy of Film and Television Arts/LA (BAFTA/LA) Festival Choice Award; Best Director First Feature: Special Jury Recognition-Feature Narrative and Festival Programmers’ Award—Narrative and Best Narrative Feature at the Roxbury Film Festival, U.S.A.

ELZA is the first narrative film by a Guadeloupean female director.



Elvin Ross, owner and executive producer of e. ross studios, is well known and widely respected in the music industry. He has composed music for an extraordinary number of hugely successful stage plays, television series and films. His credits include creator and executive producer of the television award winning Gospel Dream Talent Search as seen on BET and GMC.Elvin has recently included the title of film director to his repertoire for the documentary feature, “Kunta Kinteh Island,” which exploits the events of the renaming of James Island to Kunta Kinteh Island in The Gambia, West Africa. In recent years, Ross has composed memorable melodic movie scores for Tyler Perry’s Diary Of A Mad Black Woman, by Lions Gate Films and follow-up movie,Madea’s Family Reunion. Elvin’s stage play musical credits include the complete collection of Tyler Perry’s plays including Bishop T.D. Jakes’ “Woman Thou Art Loosed,” and “Behind Closed Doors.” Ross is currently the weekly composer for the TBS/Tyler Perry Studios television sitcoms House of Payne, Meet the Browns and For Better Or Worse. In 2008 and 2009, ASCAP honored Ross with the ASCAP Film and Television Music Award for the music from “House of Payne.” ASCAP presented the prestigious award to Elvin again in 2010 and 2011 for the music from “Meet The Browns” and recently received the same acclaim for Tyler Perry’s ”For Better Or Worse.”



Saul Williams. American singer, musician, poet, writer, and actor, SAUL WILLIAMS is known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop, and for his lead role in the 1998 film Slam, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. His early success led to collaborations with the likes of Erykah Badu, Nas, The Roots and Zack De La Rocha. Saul received a bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College in Philosphy and Drama and went on to study acting at NYU, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and HB Studios. He has published several volumes of poetry which he has read to opera house audiences with full orchestral backing. He has contributed to the New York Times, voiced Jean Michel Basquiat in Downtown 81 and cut records with Rick Rubin and Trent Reznor. Artist of the spoken, written, word, acclaimed musician, indie actor—Saul Williams defies categorization and genre. He recently starred in the newest feature film, Tey by French-Senegalese director Alain Gomis, which was nominated for the Golden Berlin Bear at the 2012 Berlin International Film Festival as well as best feature at the 2012 Chicago International Film Festival.



Dr. Alice E. Stephens is a tenured associate professor of mass media arts at Clark Atlanta University where she teaches in the radio/TV/film concentration. She holds a Ph.D. in psychology from Florida State University (FSU) as well as an M. F. A. from the FSU Film School.

A psychologist turned filmmaker, screenwriter and film festival curator/programmer Stephens is a scholar of and advocate for the exhibition of African Diaspora cinema. During the mid 90’s she founded the successful Columbia College Chicago African Film Festival and served as Festival Director of this uniquely empowering cultural experience. She has also served as a film festival judge, invited moderator, respondent, and panelist at many regional, national and international film festivals including the Pan African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) and the Carthage Film Festival of Tunisia.

Dr. Stephens’ research interests include visual storytelling, the impact of social media on the moving image, media literacy, identity and media representations, and the exhibition of African Diaspora cinema.



Dr. Michael Wiedorn is Assistant Professor of French in the School of Modern Languages at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Previously he served as an Assistant Professor at St. Edward’s University and as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Tulane University, after receiving his Ph.D. from the Program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the Martinican novelist and philosopher Edouard Glissant’s engagement with the philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s work, and on Glissant’s own radical philosophy. Publications include “Go Slow Now: Saying the Unsayable in Glissant’s Reading of Faulkner,” in the journal Francophone Postcolonial Studies, and a chapter in the book Représentations de l’exil. Current work includes a project on the origins of the notion of the Creole. He wrote his dissertation while living at the Casa Argentina in Paris.

With the support of: