Black France on Film | Race, Diaspora, Hauntings - France & Its Others

About the summer 2024 film series 

This film series takes viewers on a journey, not to a destination known as "Black France" but through the lived experiences of diverse African and French peoples of African descent in and beyond the French Republic. From colonialism and its afterlife through the Black Lives Matter movement in French Society, the series explores contested questions of race and belonging that have long haunted a "raceblind" France. Black France on Film offers diverse perspectives on b/Black French life through the powerful medium of film in conjunction with invited filmmakers and specialists of these issues. In keeping with the celebration of James Baldwin's centennial anniversary, the series includes a selection that illuminates the causes of his migration to Paris, the City of Light.

The series is convened by Dartmouth Professors Trica Keaton, Gerd Gemünden, yasser elhariry, Lucas Hollister, Marie Larose, and Sandra Mefoude Obiono in collaboration with the Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life at Dartmouth and the Hopkins Center for the Arts with Johanna Evans. 

Schedule and Program 

Thursday, June 27, 5:00 pm, Loew Auditorium 

Atlantique / Atlantics (2009; 15min), a short film by Mati Diop 

Mille Soleils / A Thousand Suns (2013; 45mins), directed by Mati Diop 

Director Mati Diop will introduce the films and participate in Q&A following the screening with Profs. Gerd Gemünden and Iyabo Kwayana 

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Friday, June 28, 5:00 pm, Gilman Auditorium at Hood Museum of Art 

Atlantique / Atlantics (2019; 1h45min), feature film directed by Mati Diop 

Director Mati Diop will introduce the film and participate in discussion and Q&A following the film screening with Profs. Marie Larose and Lucas Hollister 

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Wednesday, July 10, 5:00 pm, Loew Auditorium 

Afrique sur Seine (1955; 22 min), produced by Mamadou Sarr and Paulin Soumanou Vieyra 

Borom Sarret (1963; 20 min), short film by Ousmane Sembène

La Noire de… / Black Girl (1966; 1h 5min), directed by Ousmane Sembène

Stéphane Vieyra, son of Beninese/Senegalese filmmaker Paulin Soumanou Vieyra and Alain Sembène, son of Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène, will join Profs. Sandra Mefoude Obiono, and yasser elhariry for a discussion and Q&A following the film screenings. 

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Wednesday, July 17, 5:00 pm, Loew Auditorium 

Où sont les Noirs ? / Acting While Black (2019, 1h) a documentary by Rokhaya Diallo 

Regard Noir / Melanin (2021, 1h 34min), a documentary by Aïssa Maïga

A discussion and Q&A will follow the screening with filmmaker Rokhaya Diallo, with Profs. Trica Keaton, Marie Larose, and yasser elhariry. 

A recorded introduction from Aïssa Maïga will precede the screening of Regard Noir. 

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Wednesday, July 31, 5:00 pm, Loew Auditorium  

Baldwin: I Heard it Through the Grapevine (1982; 91min), directed by Dick Fontaine and Pat Hartley

Haden Guest, Director of the Harvard Film Archive, and Kimberly Juanita Brown will serve as discussants following the screening. 

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Monday, August 5, 4:30 pm, Loew Auditorium 

Screening of Les Misérables (2019) by Ladj Ly and Black Lives Matter – France with discussion from Jean Beaman, University of California, Santa Barbara and CUNY Graduate Center 

Sponsors  

Black France on Film is sponsored by the Department of African and African American Studies, the Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life, the Leslie Center for the Humanities, the Ethics Institute, the Department of French and Italian, the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, the Department of Film and Media Studies, the Department of English and Creative Writing, and the Hopkins Center for the Arts. The series is convened by Dartmouth Professors Trica Keaton, Gerd Gemünden, yasser elhariry, Lucas Hollister, Marie Larose, and Sandra Mefoude Obiono. The series wishes to thank the African and African American Academic Enrichment Fund,  Prof. Mame Fatou Niang and Prof. Terri Francis for their help and support of this project and Peter Ciardelli and the technical staff of the Hopkins Center for the Arts.