This year, FEMI – Guadeloupe International Film Festival, will be held from February 19-27, in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe. Screening venues include Salle Robert Loyson, Cinema REX, Beauport Country of -Port Louis Cane, and Media Lamentin. For additional information on attending the Festival, visit the official website. Now, let’s take a look at the Caribbean films selected for the Festival, this year.
Blades Ultramarines
by Stéphanie GILLARD
Documentary Feature
Guadeloupe/France 2015
Through the course and learning of young CREPS Pointe à Pitre, this film tells us how the fencing myth is related to the West Indies from Dumas to Flessel, how he developed, how it is lived daily, and what it says about the relationship of the West Indies with France.
My Social Networks
by Katia Café FEBRISSY
Documentary Short
Guadeloupe/Canada 2015
Set in the world of new technology and APPS, “Social Me” is a coming of age story, which follows 18-year-old protagonist Nya whose smartphone has become an extension of her arm and social media instrumental in shaping her identity.
Teenage-hood is a universal stage in life. In our digital age, what role does social media play during that coming of age phase?
The documentary film “Social Me” invites us into the “APPSified” world of the protagonist, Nya and gives us a glimpse into what teenage-hood in our digital age is all about. Along the way, she takes a critical look at how social media has influenced her self-definition both online and in real life.
Nightmare Before Wedding
by Fabienne ORAIN CHOMAUD
Narrative Short
Guadeloupe 2015
Alice has an appointment at noon to get married but she does not remember whih church in Guadeloupe. She will cross the North Grande Terre, from one church to another, amid cane fields. She will meet the red lady, white lady, the caterpillar who smokes and see his initiation. Alice does find her way, will she make the right decision, does she decide to grow up?
L’Arbre a Palabres
by Keen DE KERMADEC
Narrative Short
Guadeloupe 2015
Laurence and Paul, a young married couple just inherited a large old detached dwelling near the Soufriere.Meanwhile, Laurence learns she is pregnant. The good news follow one another, but this joy was short-lived.Paul turns every day into a cold and violent being. Anxiety or anger when the truth is hidden ……
La Vie Pure
by Jérémie BANSTER
Narrative Feature
French Guiana 2014
In 1949, a French explorer goes on a solitary expedition in the Amazon forest. He leaves behind him a diary that reflects the meaning of Pure Life and his encounters but leaves the mystery of his own disappearance unsolved.
Vuelos Prohibidos
by Rigoberto LOPEZ
Narrative Feature
Cuba 2015
Monique is from Paris, is 35 and has a Cuban father does not know. One morning, while waiting to travel to Havana, she meets a middle-agd Cuban man in a Paris airport waiting for the same flight. Flights were canceled because of an unexpected storm. That night, in a hotel room next to the airport, they became lovers, while sharing confessions and feelings on their visions of Cuba – going between truths, frustrations, doubts and hopes.
Botoman, Meitier Piroguier
by Didier URBAIN
Documentary Feature
French Guyana 2015
Like a road movie, the camera follows, on his departure from St-Laurent du Maroni (French Guiana), a boatman who transports and delivers goods until Indian country; 3-day canoe on the Maroni River.
The film is surprising, far from the usual encyclopedic discourse or ethno-geographical and book scattered elements, without demonstration of will, sometimes shamelessly, always without heaviness or downtime. The film, like the journey takes place without us realizing it. In the end, the end of the film, end of the trip and, somehow, end in deadlock, we question our viewing position. This is a militant film, an art film; certainly a different film.
Masques
by Apsita BERTHELOT-CISSE
Documentary Feature
French Guyana/France 2015
This project is an immersion in the Guiana carnival, today one of the longest in the world … Deciphering of custom and codes, “masked ready.” Here we do not mess with tradition! This is what we will understand through the evocation of the 1946 carnival, during which the Creole population and Senegalese soldiers have clashed violently, putting Cayenne in fire and blood …
Show Me Your Motion: Caribbean Film Festivals
by Bruce Paddington
Documentary Feature
Trinidad & Tobago 2015
Show Me Your Motion visits the Havana Film Festival, FEMI in Guadeloupe, and the trinidad+tobago film festival, to capture the excitement of these events. It includes interviews with filmmakers and festival organisers, while showing selections from a number of Caribbean films.
Papa Machete
by Jonathan David Kane
Doumentary Short
Haiti 2014
200 years ago, the slaves of Haiti defeated Napoleon’s armies in the historic revolution of 1791-1804. One of their weapons was the very tool they used to work the land: the machete. Papa Machete explores the esoteric martial art that evolved through this victory through the practice and life of a farmer named Alfred Avril. The short film documents his proud devotion to his heritage in the face of bitter poverty, and his efforts to keep this mysterious art alive.
Sand Dollars
by Israël Cárdenas, Laura Amelia Guzmán
Narrative Feature
Dominican Republic 2014
An older European woman becomes enchanted with a young Dominican woman who must struggle to make ends meet. Love brings a flow of entanglements in a drama which unfolds like palm trees in an irresistible storm.
Le Miroir Brise de Valcin II
by Arnold Antonin
Narrative Short
Haiti 2013
Having started out as a naive painter, as was his father Pierre-Joseph and partly his uncle Gerard, Valcin II operates a real break. It will be called more Fravrange Valcin but Valcin II. He quickly became, after some fine technician studies of drawing and a master of color with a shiny engagement in terms of aesthetic research and in terms of the representation of social and political problems. He wages war against the unjust society in which he lives, against the galleries and against himself.Valcin has always had in his tormented life, next to the passion for artistic creation of women. It was in the turmoil of his passions that he sought inspiration for launching the whole night in the recreation of this broken mirror that was the only one where he could watch.
A Journey Through Frank Etienne’s World
by Arnold Antonin
Documentary Feature
Haiti 2015
Frank Etienne is one of Haiti’s most prolific writers. He is also a multidimensional artist, who defines himself as “the greatest creator worldwide.” This film is a trip into the literary, poetic, theatrical and picturesque work of Frank Etienne. Also included are interviews with Etienne’s family, friends and peers, including the Haitian-Canadian novelist Dany Lafèrierre.
Kamelo
by Jean Claude BOURJOLLY
Narrative Short
Haiti 2015
Late 70 early 80 Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Jean-Claude Duvalier president told life is in power for almost 10 years having succeeded his father the late Dr. François Duvalier who himself had led the country for 14 years. The police and the army are one, neighborhoods, streets and alleys of cities are full of spies. Nobody dares criticize the government. Those who venture there are denouncing the authorities and forced into exile. The less fortunate are imprisoned, tortured and shot. Kamelo is a poor citizen, having been caught complaining about poor water management, had to defend himself violently against a Macoute uncle (Militia).
Haiti Bride
by Robert Ramesar YAO
Narrative Feature
Trinidad + Tobago/Haiti 2015
Haiti Bride centres around Marie-Thérèse, who leaves Haiti for New York with her family when Jean-Bertrand Aristide is thrown out of power. Years later Marie-Thérèse meets and falls in love with Paul, a fellow Haitian. They go back to Haiti to get married, but unfortunately the date and time of the wedding coincide with the 2011 earthquake. The lovers are separated, and fear that the other is dead. A year later, however, they meet again.
Happy Festivalling!!
