BY EMILY HARRISON / KALAMALAMA STAFF WRITER
Lights! Camera! Action! Roll the film! Are you interested in foreign films? How about French films?
Love the culture of fashion, class and love? Why not indulge a bit in French culture by watching films from the region?
The Department of Arts, Humanities and Languages of Hawaii Pacific University’s College of Liberal Arts presents HPU Cinémathèque French Film Festival 2023-2024, sponsored by the FACE Foundation and its national Albertine Cinémathèque program.
Unfamiliar with the program or this festival? Stay tuned, because I’ve got answers to your questions!
I spoke with Dr. Chadia Chambers-Samadi, this year’s Albertine Cinémathèque director, via email.
But first, here’s a look at the upcoming films.
Screening times for all films is 4 p.m. at Waterfront Plaza, Building 6, Room 323.
Feb. 2, 2024: ‘Gagarine’
Yuri is 16 years old and has always dreamed of becoming an astronaut. When plans to demolish his childhood home leak out, he joins the resistance. This mission will become his “starship.”
February 9, 2024: Revior Paris
Three months after surviving a terrorist attack, Mia is still traumatized and unable to remember that night. In order to move on with her life, she retraces her steps and investigates what little memory of that night she has.
February 16, 2024: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
An ambassador of a South American country has been trafficking drugs along with some French bourgeois friends.
They plan to have a feast with one another, but when the line is crossed between reality and dreams, chaos breaks out.
February 23, 2024: Saint Omer
Rama, a novelist, is attending a trial of a young woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter. The testimonies from the mother and the witnesses leave Rama shaken.
March 15, 2024: Queen Margot
This film was a co-production between studios based in France, Italy, and Germany.
Margot is in line for the crown of France, but her inheritance has begun to be challenged by Roman Catholics and Protestants who are scrambling for power. Her own mother is against Margot gaining the crown.
After a loveless marriage and a secret romance, Margot faces her mother, and the people, in order to gain the crown.
Interview with Dr. Chambers-Samadi:
QUESTION: Why should students get involved and come to the festival?
ANSWER: HPU Cinémathèque has been running for four years and students should get involved because they enjoy cinema and films. Some students are involved in choosing the films, advertising them, and delivering an intro to give context before the screenings.
We try to connect all production aspects to different classes as an experience-based learning opportunity. Students also come because some professors offer extra credit to attend when it connects to class material.
Ideally, I’d say that students should come and get involved because they enjoy the films. When we stream movies in our house, the algorithm knows what we like. HPU Cinémathèque offers a different window into the world.
You may have to read the dialogue captions, but the sound and music get you traveling to unexpected places and the stories featured are often very touching and thought-provoking. It’s not like Hollywood; happy endings are not mandatory, and this type of movie usually just gets you thinking about people, elsewhere, who experience love, pain, laughter, and that kind of thing.
Q: Why were these films picked?
A: The funding for HPU Cinémathèque is provided through a grant by the FACE Foundation, soon to become ALBERTINE FOUNDATION. Their goal is to expand access to French cinema on American campuses and their mission is to “offer a film selection that engages with the greatest issues of our time while nurturing an enduring love for this diverse and evolving art form”.
Every year Albertine Cinémathèque opens an application with a selection of about 50 movies, and we choose six: Five recent movies, and a classic. The “oldy” is always the most popular ;).
Q: Who picked the films?
A: A committee from the College of Liberal Arts along with input from students from a Literature to Screen class picks their six favorites out of a pool of 50. The six movies that get cited most often make our selection application to the Albertine Foundation.
Q: Is there and HPU connection to these films?
A: HPU, specifically the department of Arts, Communication, Languages and Media is hosting the festival but there is not a specific connection between HPU and any of the films.
Q: What is the main goal for this festival?
A: I would say there is a double objective: it helps students learn about films, cinema and all aspects of a festival production, think critically about a different place and improve their intercultural competence. The second objective is the simple pleasure of watching a movie in a dark room with a group; it’s cathartic.
Q: Will there be another film festival soon, if so, will they contain French films as well?
A: I am not aware of another festival at HPU, but we have a few Film Festivals in Honolulu and the legendary HIFF, Hawaii International Film Festival, is coming up in March.
Q: Are there film festivals with other nationalities besides French?
A: HPU hasn’t held any other film festivals recently but from 2006-2013, we held the Viewpoints Film Series on Friday nights which featured mostly documentary films, and the language department hosted a small self-funded international film week a few times in the 2000’s.
The HPU Cinémathèque, while having a connection to Francophone cinema, have come from or been set in many different countries: Mali, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Spain, Israel, USA to name a few, and they often include other languages. For example, the first movie for this year Casablanca Beats is a Moroccan film and much of the dialogue is in Darija a variation of Arabic.
