PART 2: My time at the 21st Lesbian Film Festival in Paris
On Saturday, the African Diasporas film that I truly enjoyed was Rain, an amazing film by Maria Govan about a young teen-aged girl who goes to live with her estranged mother in the city of Nassau, after the death of her grandmother. The film follows her through her trails and tribulations as she goes from a warm protected home that she shared with her grandmother, to the streets of the city where her mother unfortunately lives. It was a truly moving film.
Later that afternoon, I attended a discussion on "Féminism noir" - which was a discussion about Black Feminism born from the African-American feminist movement - and asked the question about how they can create "Black Feminism" in France. The discussion was intense, and as usual, there was a lot of discomfort from the 90% visibly European Diasporas audience, when discussions focused on the racism that black women still face in France. Other interesting points were raised regarding the reduction globally, in interest in the feminist fight, and the perception of some in the audience that even the festival was implicitly racist in its selections of films and locations, and also in not doing enough to move the issue from a mere discussion to support of actual deeds and activities. The most intense portion of the debate was when a attendee stated that race was just about melanin, so why was there a focus on "black feminism" per se!
Sunday also delivered some interesting selections in cinema - there was a 35 minute documentary called "Sénégalaises et Islam" by Angèle Diabang Brener, also by origin, Senegalese, about the lives, choices, views and opinions of about 6 Senegalese Islamic women. It was truly striking. The honesty of these women, and their undeniable strength and self-assuredness was wonderful to see, even with some of the extremely inflammatory comments that a couple of them made. This was followed by another documentary called "En Attendant Les Hommes" by Katy Iena Ndiaye, about women from the outskirts of Mauritania, in which they really candidly talk about their relationships with their partners.
I also loved the documentary entitled "Le Voyage de Nadia" by Carmen Garcia and Nadia Zouaoui, which followed Nadia, an Algerian woman as she returns to her town in Algeria after an absence of 18 years. She left after she was married off to a man twice her age, who lived in Montréal, Canada, and divorced after a long 12 years of a very unhappy, abusive marriage. We learn about a village in which women aren't allowed to step out of their houses, even to go to the market - the men do all the shopping for food, clothes, etc. It was incredible to watch these women discuss their lives, their robotic acceptance of the male domination, and their dreams. This was followed by a discussion afterwards in which the women in the audience also contributed their own experiences and corroborated some of the situations that were depicted in the movie.
Overall, the festival has been extremely illuminating. I would love to see many of these films shown in film festivals in the U.S., because I think it would do us a world of good to see the lives of other strong women, their religions, their sexuality, their struggles, and their successes. Definitely far exceeded my expectations of the festival!
Later that afternoon, I attended a discussion on "Féminism noir" - which was a discussion about Black Feminism born from the African-American feminist movement - and asked the question about how they can create "Black Feminism" in France. The discussion was intense, and as usual, there was a lot of discomfort from the 90% visibly European Diasporas audience, when discussions focused on the racism that black women still face in France. Other interesting points were raised regarding the reduction globally, in interest in the feminist fight, and the perception of some in the audience that even the festival was implicitly racist in its selections of films and locations, and also in not doing enough to move the issue from a mere discussion to support of actual deeds and activities. The most intense portion of the debate was when a attendee stated that race was just about melanin, so why was there a focus on "black feminism" per se!
Sunday also delivered some interesting selections in cinema - there was a 35 minute documentary called "Sénégalaises et Islam" by Angèle Diabang Brener, also by origin, Senegalese, about the lives, choices, views and opinions of about 6 Senegalese Islamic women. It was truly striking. The honesty of these women, and their undeniable strength and self-assuredness was wonderful to see, even with some of the extremely inflammatory comments that a couple of them made. This was followed by another documentary called "En Attendant Les Hommes" by Katy Iena Ndiaye, about women from the outskirts of Mauritania, in which they really candidly talk about their relationships with their partners.
I also loved the documentary entitled "Le Voyage de Nadia" by Carmen Garcia and Nadia Zouaoui, which followed Nadia, an Algerian woman as she returns to her town in Algeria after an absence of 18 years. She left after she was married off to a man twice her age, who lived in Montréal, Canada, and divorced after a long 12 years of a very unhappy, abusive marriage. We learn about a village in which women aren't allowed to step out of their houses, even to go to the market - the men do all the shopping for food, clothes, etc. It was incredible to watch these women discuss their lives, their robotic acceptance of the male domination, and their dreams. This was followed by a discussion afterwards in which the women in the audience also contributed their own experiences and corroborated some of the situations that were depicted in the movie.
Overall, the festival has been extremely illuminating. I would love to see many of these films shown in film festivals in the U.S., because I think it would do us a world of good to see the lives of other strong women, their religions, their sexuality, their struggles, and their successes. Definitely far exceeded my expectations of the festival!
Comment
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Comment by RealSoul9 on November 12, 2009 at 8:46pm - I enjoyed this as well. It's important that we as lesbians, lesbians of color, women, and humans experience the lives of others whether to better our own or appreciate what we have even more. Thank you for sharing.
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