Quartiers Lointains: Season 5
Theme: Self-Image
What image do we have of ourselves when our family history isn’t fully passed down to us? When we return, years later, to the terrain of our childhood? When we don’t meet the criteria imposed by society? When we want to break free from the image others have of us? We’ve often said it: the image we have of ourselves is often linked to the images that represent us in cinema, on television, and in the media. Through varied approaches, the filmmakers of the fifth season of Quartiers Lointains tackle this question in an intimate and moving way.
Our Sponsor: Lucien Jean-Baptiste
Born in Martinique, Lucien Jean-Baptiste moved to mainland France at the age of three. After working in event planning, at 31, he decided to become an actor, his childhood dream. He began by taking to the stage after passing the entrance exam for the free class at Cours Florent. His early film career was marked by roles in films by Sarah Lévy, Barthélémy Grossman, Emmanuel Boursignhac, voice acting (Chris Rock, Will Smith), and the short film L’Homme Sans Tête by Juan Solanas (Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival 2003, César for Best Short Film 2004).
With La Première Etoile, his first feature film, he moved behind the camera in 2009 and took on his first major film role. He later directed 30° Couleur (2012), a biting comedy about the return to Martinique of a native son, Dieumerci! (2016), about the vocation of an actor, Il a déjà tes yeux (2017) about the adoption of a white child by a Black couple, and La deuxième étoile (2018), about a Caribbean family’s ski vacation.
The Films of Season 5
Nowhere de Askia Traoré
Fiction - 25min
Synopsis :
A funeral. Twenty years since he last returned to the neighborhood of his childhood. The past resurfaces...
Carrière du film :
CinéSud Festival, France
Return to Genoa City de Benoît Grimalt
Documentary - 29min
Synopsis :
Grandma and her brother Uncle Thomas have been watching the same soap opera, every day at the same time, since 1989. Twenty years after I left Nice, I return to see them so they can tell me about the 3,527 episodes I missed.
Carrière du film :
Grand Jury Prize ex-aequo and Audience Award, Premiers Plans Festival, Angers 2018
Illy Short Film Award, Directors’ Fortnight (Cannes 2017)
Short Film Award, Festival des Étoiles (Najac 2017)
Grand Prize, Interférences Festival (Villeurbanne 2017)
Special Jury Prize, Un festival C'est trop court (Nice 2017)
Audience Award and Special Jury Mention, Cinemed - Mediterranean Film Festival (Montpellier 2017)
Audience Award ex-aequo, Family Film Festival (St-Ouen 2017)
The Blue, White, Red of My Hair de Josza Anjembe
Fiction - 21min
Synopsis :
At seventeen, Seyna, a teenager of Cameroonian origin, is passionate about the history of France, the country where she was born and which she deeply loves. With her high school diploma in hand and her eighteenth birthday approaching, Seyna aspires to one thing: to acquire French nationality. But her father, Amidou, fiercely opposes it.
Carrière du film :
Selected in the Best Short Film category at the César Awards 2018, Audience Award Off-courts Trouville, France
New York International Children's Film Festival, USA
Audience Award, FFF, Francophone Film Festival, Montreal
Audience Award, Festifrance, France
Official Selection, Ciné Banlieue Festival, France
Audience Award, International Film Festival, Saint-Jean-de Luz, France
Best Female Performance Award FTV, Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, France
Gagarine de Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh
Fiction - 15min
Synopsis :
Youri is twenty years old. He lives with his mother in Ivry, in the housing project where he grew up. But demolition is approaching: the setting of his childhood dreams is about to disappear. How can you take flight when you no longer have a spaceship?
Carrière du film :
Grand Jury Prize HLM sur Cour(t), France
Jury Prize, Saint-Jean-de-Luz Festival, France
Jury Prize, Génération Court, France
Special Jury Mention, Cinébanlieue Festival, France
Jury Prize, Sundance Channel Shorts Competition, UK
Best Original Music Award, FestiFrance, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Jury Prize, Cinémaginaire Festival of Argelès
Audience Award Val-de-Marne, Paris Court Devant
THE FILMMAKERS OF SEASON 5
Askia Traoré
Born in Beirut (Lebanon), Askia Traoré grew up in La Duchère, on the outskirts of Lyon (France). After working for several years as a theater operator, he moved to Paris and ventured into film production. In 2010, he directed his first short film, Nola.
Josza Anjembe
Born in Paris, Josza Anjembe grew up in Seine-Saint-Denis and trained in journalism and political science. After working on various television programs, she began directing in 2008 with her first documentary, Massage à la Camerounaise, selected at festivals and broadcast on La Chaîne Parlementaire. This was followed in 2012 by a documentary on KRUMP dance. A recipient of the Talents en Court grant in 2015, she directed in 2016 her first fiction short film, The Blue, White, Red of My Hair, nominated for the Best Short Film César Award in 2018.
Benoît Grimalt
Benoît Grimalt was born in 1975 and lives in Nice. He is a photographer. In 2008, he made his first documentary film. He is therefore also a director. But not only that, since in 2012 he published a book of drawings. So, he’s also a bit of a draftsman…
Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh
It was on the benches of Sciences Po that Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh met. She lived in Lebanon and Marseille, while he lived in Pau and Colombia. She trained in video and joined the writing residency La Ruche de Gindou Cinéma, while he completed the Master’s "Creative Documentary Filmmaking" at Lussas and directed Derrière la ligne noire about a Colombian community. In 2015, they co-directed Gagarine, which was widely awarded at festivals, followed by a series of short films for the collection "Dans mon hall," produced by the company De l'autre côté du périph'. Their short film La république des enchanteurs won the Canal + Prize at the International Short Film Festival of Clermont-Ferrand in 2016.