Opening Night

DAYS OF GLORY/INDIGÈNES

(Algeria/Morocco/France/Belgium, 2006, 120 min.), directed by Rachid Bouchareb.

The festival opens with the highly acclaimed World War II drama Days of Glory/Indigènes, winner of the Best Actor prize (for ensemble acting) at Cannes Film Festival in 2006 and Oscar nominee for best foreign language film in 2007. This extraordinary film tells the story of the more than one hundred thousand “indigenous soldiers” who fought for France against the Nazis, whom the history books have largely forgotten. The film focuses on a small group of soldiers from Algeria and other French colonies in North Africa who choose to fight for the French, each for his own reason. The film follows them over the course of a year through Italy and across France into Alsace, where they find themselves alone fighting to save a village against German assault. Days of Glory created a firestorm in France by highlighting the struggle of “non-French” veterans of World War II to receive their pensions from the government. In French and Arabic with English subtitles. Rated R for combat violence and some profanity.

Friday, February 1, 7:00 p.m., Hollywood Theatre, 4122 N.E. Sandy Blvd. 

Tribute to Ousmane Sembène, the “Father of African Cinema,” 1923 – 2007

BOROM SARRET

(Senegal, 1963, 19 min.), directed by Ousmane Sembène.

BLACK GIRL/LA NOIRE DE…

(Senegal, 1966, 65 min.), directed by Ousmane Sembène.

The festival is honored to pay tribute to Ousmane Sembène, the great director who died earlier this year. The festival began in 1991 with a film by Sembène, and over the years we have shown nearly all of his films. Two of his films that have never been shown at the festival are the films Borom Sarret and Black Girl. Borom Sarret, Sembène’s first film, is a classic of Third World Neorealist filmmaking. It follows a cart driver through the streets of Dakar as he picks up fares and struggles with a system that is stacked against him. This beautiful short film immediately propelled Sembène to the forefront of Third World filmmaking. Black Girl, Sembène’s first feature film, is a story of dreams and dashed hopes in the realm of neocolonialism. Diouana, a young woman who works for a French couple in Senegal, is given the opportunity to experience life in Europe when the couple repatriates to the south of France. Yet her experience in the not-so-ideal world of Europe turns out to be very different from what she had expected. This classic story of emigration and alienation is among Sembène’s most powerful, painful, and influential. 

Saturday, February 2, 2:00 p.m., Moriarty Arts & Humanities Building, Room 104, PCC Cascade Campus.

Tribute to Ousmane Sembène, the “Father of African Cinema,” 1923 – 2007

GUELWAAR

(Senegal, 1992, 115 min.), directed by Ousmane Sembène.

Controversy erupts when the body of Pierre Henri Thioune, also known as Guelwaar, a political activist, disappears from the morgue just before his funeral. It turns up in a Muslim cemetery, though Guelwaar was a Catholic. The two communities, Muslim and Catholic, find themselves at an impasse. As they seek resolution, we come to learn more about the man known as Guelwaar, and what he represents. Sembène manages to combine social critique with biting humor and his usual deep sense of humanity in one of his most popular films, more relevant now than ever. In Wolof with English subtitles.

Saturday, February 2, 7:30 p.m., Moriarty Arts & Humanities Building, Room 104, PCC Cascade Campus.

Michael Dembrow
Dept. of English
Portland Community College
P.O. Box 19000
Portland, OR  97280-0990
503 978-5213
mdembrow@pcc.edu
http://spot.pcc.edu/~mdembrow/index.html

  When We Can See Life Through the Eyes of Others, We Are Transformed