about
Presented by the Department of French & Francophone Studies (Brown University) at Martinos Auditorium in the Granoff Center for the Arts and at Avon Cinema.
The Providence French Festival, henceforth renamed the Providence French and Francophone Film Festival (PFFFF), started in 1995. Organized by the Department of French and Francophone Studies at Brown University, it is an event open to the city of Providence and the greater community of Rhode Island. The festival’s 2023 edition will take place on April 6-12, kicking off at the Martinos Auditorium at Brown’s Granoff Center for the Arts, and continuing at the Avon, a vintage independent cinema right off campus, owned by the same family since 1938.
France, Cameroon, Belgium, Canada, Chad, and Switzerland will be represented through a selection of more than fifteen films from 2021 and 2022. The repertoire includes feature films by such directors as Alice Diop, Bruno Dumont, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Charlotte Le Bon, Albert Serra, Gaspard Noé and Laura Wandel. Two special sessions will be devoted to a younger audience over the weekend (Ernest and Celestine and Calamity).
This year’s program foregrounds certain themes, one of which is womanhood. Some films deal with violence exacted against women, from femicide (The Night of the 12) to rape (Moto Taxi) to the denial of abortion rights. They explore no less the strength of resistance, and the repairing of bonds, both subtle and sacred, that restore the power of an age-old sorority (Saint Omer and Lingui). Filmmakers also turn their lens on the world of school and its challenges (Playground and Un bon début), on the fragility of aging (Vortex) and adolescence (Falcon Lake), on the precarity of work and the disaffection it can breed (Zero Fucks Given). Two films, respectively opening and closing the festival (France and Pacifiction), offer a critical—ironic, almost fantastic—take on what “France” means.
In addition, the festival will include special features highlighting the works of two auteur.e.s. First, a tribute to the great Jean-Luc Godard (deceased in 2022), with the screening of one of his early films (My Life to Live, 1962) and his last (The Image Book, 2018). Then, a special invitation to the filmmaker Nurith Aviv, witness to an extraordinary period in the history of French cinema, and creator of an œuvre concerned with questions of translation and the plurality of languages: she will introduce in person her films Signer (2018), on sign language, and Yiddish (2021).
The Providence French Festival, henceforth renamed the Providence French and Francophone Film Festival (PFFFF), started in 1995. Organized by the Department of French and Francophone Studies at Brown University, it is an event open to the city of Providence and the greater community of Rhode Island. The festival’s 2023 edition will take place on April 6-12, kicking off at the Martinos Auditorium at Brown’s Granoff Center for the Arts, and continuing at the Avon, a vintage independent cinema right off campus, owned by the same family since 1938.
France, Cameroon, Belgium, Canada, Chad, and Switzerland will be represented through a selection of more than fifteen films from 2021 and 2022. The repertoire includes feature films by such directors as Alice Diop, Bruno Dumont, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Charlotte Le Bon, Albert Serra, Gaspard Noé and Laura Wandel. Two special sessions will be devoted to a younger audience over the weekend (Ernest and Celestine and Calamity).
This year’s program foregrounds certain themes, one of which is womanhood. Some films deal with violence exacted against women, from femicide (The Night of the 12) to rape (Moto Taxi) to the denial of abortion rights. They explore no less the strength of resistance, and the repairing of bonds, both subtle and sacred, that restore the power of an age-old sorority (Saint Omer and Lingui). Filmmakers also turn their lens on the world of school and its challenges (Playground and Un bon début), on the fragility of aging (Vortex) and adolescence (Falcon Lake), on the precarity of work and the disaffection it can breed (Zero Fucks Given). Two films, respectively opening and closing the festival (France and Pacifiction), offer a critical—ironic, almost fantastic—take on what “France” means.
In addition, the festival will include special features highlighting the works of two auteur.e.s. First, a tribute to the great Jean-Luc Godard (deceased in 2022), with the screening of one of his early films (My Life to Live, 1962) and his last (The Image Book, 2018). Then, a special invitation to the filmmaker Nurith Aviv, witness to an extraordinary period in the history of French cinema, and creator of an œuvre concerned with questions of translation and the plurality of languages: she will introduce in person her films Signer (2018), on sign language, and Yiddish (2021).
the team @ French & Francophone Studies — Brown University
Committee:
Laura Odello, Director of the Festival
Thangam Ravindranathan
Stéphanie Ravillon
Stéphanie Gaillard
Lewis Seifert
Festival Assistant, Webdesigner, Editing & Graphic Design:
Anaïs Shen
Administration & Accounting:
Candace Laning, Olivia Urciuoli, & Mileena Delgado
An immense thank you to Sylvie Toux (film festival founder, 1995), Regina Longo, Daniel Kamil, Eric Bilodeau, Richard Blakely, who have been vital to this festival's continued success.
And in loving remembrance of those who worked for years to create and support the festival: Shoggy Waryn, Richard Manning, Achim Wieland and Marcin Gizycki.
Laura Odello, Director of the Festival
Thangam Ravindranathan
Stéphanie Ravillon
Stéphanie Gaillard
Lewis Seifert
Festival Assistant, Webdesigner, Editing & Graphic Design:
Anaïs Shen
Administration & Accounting:
Candace Laning, Olivia Urciuoli, & Mileena Delgado
An immense thank you to Sylvie Toux (film festival founder, 1995), Regina Longo, Daniel Kamil, Eric Bilodeau, Richard Blakely, who have been vital to this festival's continued success.
And in loving remembrance of those who worked for years to create and support the festival: Shoggy Waryn, Richard Manning, Achim Wieland and Marcin Gizycki.
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Animation by Tim Probert (timprobert.com) |
