Friday, April 25 at 7:00 pm at the Capitainerie, Gustavia

52 minutes, France, 2008, video

The creation of a runway on the only flat surface long enough in St Barth was the catalyst allowing the island to open to the exterior world and start to modernize. Today, daily life on the island vibrates to the rhythm of the many planes landing and taking off. The villagers remain close to the traditions of their ancestors, wryly observing the coming and going of the jet set. With the hum of the airplanes that permanently animate the skies in the background, Pierre Brouwers illustrates the unique characteristics of St Barth. For the director, St Barth has successfully met the challenge of marrying tradition and modernity while remaining one of the most beautiful islands in the Caribbean.

53 minutes, Guadeloupe, video

This documentary retraces the week of cultural activities held in the name of Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges who was born in Guadeloupe in the 18th century, from the love of a slave and a French nobleman. The best fencer in Europe, a virtuoso violinist, and great composer, but also the first black Freemason and French army colonel, the “Nègre des Lumières,” as he was nicknamed, influenced the musical and political scene of his epoque. Cuba adopted Saint-Georges with incredible fervor as “one of the great heros of the Caribbean” and celebrates his life and work with a week of concerts, exhibitions and dance performances.

55 minutes, France, video

In this documentary, a West Indian family retraces the life of its Japanese ancestor and delves into researching its ethnic and cultural identity. The basis for the film is the life of Oto Kawamura, who was born in Tokyo. At the end of the 19th century, he set off for America, where he became an acrobat, then the director of a vaudeville circus. Years later, he married a young Dutch woman from the island of St Martin, and they had three children. In 1921, Oto died falling from his trapeze in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Today all that remains are two or three photographs. Yet over the years, Oto became a legend to his descendants. The filmmaker traced the roots of his family, as she is the niece of Patrick Kawamura, a teacher and member of the territorial council in St Barth.

95 minutes, France, 2007, 35 mm

This animated film is a coming-of-age story that offers a personal look at a young girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic revolution. In Teheran in 1978, eight-year-old Marjane dreams of the future and sees herself as a prophet that saves the world. She follows the progression of events that provokes the revolution and the fall of the Shah. With the establishment of the Islamic Republic, the country turns to fanaticism. Soon the war against Iraq brings bombs, deprivation, and disappearances of loved ones. Marjane’s parents decide to send her to Austria for protection. In Vienna, 14-year-old Marjane experiences her second revolution: adolescence, independence, and her first loves, yet with exile comes solitude and discrimination.

52 minutes, France, 2008, video

This is a second screening of this film presented in collaboration with the association Ciné Woulé and Jean-Marc Césaire, Guadeloupe. Free.

60 minutes, Guadeloupe, video

This documentary presents a panorama of female musicians from across the Caribbean, with a look at their various musical styles in a series of interviews from the TV series “F Comme Femme” for French television. From Calypso to Soca, from Gospel to Reggae, these divas take you right to the heart of their music.

Creole with French subtitles

This full-length fiction film, based on real events, was shot in the sugar cane plantations of the Dominican Republic with sugar cane cutters playing themselves in the film. It tells the story of the tragic journey undertaken by a young couple from Haiti who try to escape the entrapment of a life on the plantations that poison their very existence. A hard-hitting film about the exploitation of Haitian sugar plantation workers in the Dominican Republic will focus public attention on abuses that have been repeatedly denounced by human rights groups.

Spanish with French subtitles

Filmed in Argentina, this film takes a probing look at the moral cowardice, corruption and brutality that run rife in the Buenos Aries police force. When Zapa, a simple locksmith, runs into trouble with the law in his home town, his uncle, the ex-chief of police, pulls some strings to get him into the ‘bonaerense,’ the notorious Buenos Aries police force. Zapa quickly realizes that everyone with a badge on the streets of Buenos Aires is even more crooked than he is. Falling in with a dubious inspector, Zapa uncovers a world in which trigger-happy, racist drunks patrol the streets, serving and protecting only themselves.

Portuguese with French subtitles

This film tells the story of a young boy whose parents, members of a left-wing militia, must go into hiding and leave him behind for his own safety. They decide to drop him off with his grandfather, an orthodox Jew who lives in the Jewish neighborhood of Bom Retiro in Såo Paolo. Upon being dropped off, Mauro finds out his grandfather has suddenly died, and he is forced to stay with his grandfather’s neighbor Schlomo. Mauro has been stranded in an alien community with traditions he has never been exposed to before. Instantly, he feels lonely and estranged from everything that was once familiar to him, except for his beloved World Cup.

110 minutes, France, 2007, 35 mm

This film is a powerful portrait of the leaders of the reggae music movement and shows how reggae has become a worldwide phenomenon. The film showcases performances by the best Reggae and Dance Hall artists ever assembled. From their native ghetto to international fame, Made in Jamaica is the story of the artists who represent the Jamaican Dream. It is the story of how a small island nation took its pain and misery and turned those emotions into songs that resonate around the world.