Events
The Department of Humanities, History & Social Sciences Events
The Department of Humanities, History, and Social Sciences is proud to present the Tournées French Film Festival.
This March, enjoy five films from innovative directors whose work represents the best of French cinema today.
Screenings are free to students with school I.D., open to all, and held at the Ferguson Theater, 600 S. Michigan Avenue, on the first floor.
Friday, March 2
5:30―6:00 p.m. Reception
6:00―9:00 p.m. Screening and Discussion
Olivier Dahan 2007 / 140 min.
A swirling, impressionistic portrait of an artist who regretted nothing, La vie en Rose stars Marion Cotillard as the legendary French icon Edith Piaf. From the mean streets of the Belleville district of Paris to the dazzling limelight of New York's most famous concert halls, Piaf's life was a constant battle to sing and survive, to live and love. Piaf remains, one of France's immortal icons, her voice one of the indelible signatures of the 20th Century.
Presenter:
Herbert Allen, Marketing Communication Department
Herbert Allen is an associate professor and associate chairperson in Columbia College Chicago’s marketing communication department where he formerly served as director of advertising studies. He began his advertising agency career as a media analyst and planner at the Leo Burnett Company and served at other agencies, among them Foote Cone & Belding, Vince Cullers Advertising and Burrell Advertising. Throughout his advertising career he served as an account executive, creative director, media director and new business development strategist. He also authored numerous articles in Advertising Age magazine, the “bible” of America’s advertising industry. Reflecting his interdisciplinary range, Mr. Allen is an Emmy nominated television producer-writer who served in staff and freelance capacities at NBC and ABC television stations in Chicago, and with Central City Productions. Beyond his work in advertising and television, Allen is a playwright with a multicultural perspective. Some works include his readers theatre adaptation of Dag Hammarskjold’s Markings; a drama, titled Ophelia Moore & Testimonies Attendant To A Murder She Committed, inspired by Zora Neale Hurston’s newspaper reports on an interracial crime of passion; a musical drama, titled Bijou, which was inspired by the writings of Gyula Halasz Brassai and Jean Giradoux; and The Lady & The Sparrow, his musical remembrance of parallels in the lives and artistry of Billie Holiday and Edith Piaf. A graduate of the Union Institute, Herbert Allen holds a masters degree in semiotics.
Friday, March 9
5:30―6:00 p.m. Reception
6:00―9:00 p.m. Screening and Discussion
Laurent Cantet 2008 / 120 min.
The winner of the 2008 Palme d’Or at Cannes, the film follows a class at a diverse Parisian public junior high school. In an unusual example of art imitating life, the film was based on the best‐selling book by real‐life teacher François Bégaudeau, who also wrote the screenplay and plays himself in the film. As François attempts to teach the French language to his multi‐ethnic students, he offers both the opportunity and the threat of modern cultural assimilation. No one is above reproach in this difficult and important film.
Presenters:
Erwan Sorel, Humanities, History & Social Sciences
Erwan Sorel has been teaching at Columbia College and Loyola University since the past 5 years. He also worked at Alliance Française de Chicago as an intrusctor and Deputy Director of the Learning Center for over 10 years. Born in Marrakech, Erwan grew up and lived in Normandy for more than 20 years. After numerous experiences abroad (the Comoros islands in the Indian Ocean, the UK and Africa), he completed his linguistic studies in Caen and Paris. Erwan truly enjoys sharing his passion for French language and Francophone cultures and will make a short but detailed presentation on Morocco for our "Tour Francophone"...Venez nombreux!
Daphne MARIE-ANNE, Alliance Francaise de Chicago
Daphne MARIE-ANNE was born in Picardie, in the North part of France. She then moved to Paris to attend Denis Diderot university where she obtained her master's degree in teaching French as a second language. Since then she has been working as a French teacher in various establishments in France and Norway. Freshly arrived from Paris, she now teaches at Alliance Française de Chicago. She is also the leading teacher of the outreach program for Chicago Public School students. Daphné truly believes that one can learn more about a country, its people and language through diverse materials such as TV, commercials, songs, newspapers and movies. She rapidly became an expert in using films in her curriculum including "The class", an authentic social portrait of the French educational system.
Monday, March 12
5:30―6:00 p.m. Reception
6:00―9:00 p.m. Screening and Discussion
Abdellatil Kechiche 2007 / 151 min.
This stunning film takes place in the Southern French city of Sète where Slimane, the patriarch of a large and vivacious North African family, is an elderly dockworker. When his job of many years is suddenly no longer secure, he decides to restore an old boat, and turn it into a floating couscous restaurant. It’s a wildly ambitious project, and the increasingly ailing Slimane will need the help of all of his family members in order to pull it off.
Presenter:
Dan Rybicky, Film and Video Department
Dan Rybicky is an artist and film professor at Columbia College whose photographs and films documenting the life and work of Peter Anton were recently featured in the acclaimed exhibit Almost There at Chicago's Intuit Center for Outsider and Intuitive Art. The transmedia project, a collaboration with Aaron Wickenden, will further manifest in the coming year as a feature documentary produced by Kartemquin Films and as a book to be published by Princeton Architectural Press.
Friday, March 16
5:30―6:00 p.m. Reception
6:00―9:00 p.m. Screening and Discussion
Anne Fontaine 2009 / 110 min.
Anne Fontaine’s thoughtful exploration of the pre‐fame life of the world’s greatest fashion designer focuses on Coco Chanel during the Belle Epoque. The film opens in 1893 with a powerfully grim scene of 10‐year‐old Coco and her sister unceremoniously dumped at an orphanage and ends around World War I, a few years before the Chanel empire is launched.
Presenter:
TBA
Thursday, March 22
5:30―6:00 p.m. Reception
6:00―9:00 p.m. Screening and Discussion
Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi 2007 / 95 min.
Persepolis is the poignant story of a young girl coming of age in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. It is through the eyes of this precocious nine year old, Marjane, that we see a people's hopes dashed as fundamentalists take power. Clever and fearless, she outsmarts the “social guardians”. But fear of the new regime runs deep, and she is sent to school in Vienna. She returns to Iran to be close to her family, only to leave again at 24. Although she loves her country, she realizes that she cannot live there and she moves to France.
Presenter:
TBA
Additional Fracophonie Events:
Wednesday, March 14
Doors open at 6:30PM
Show starts at 7:00PM
Open to all, and held at the Conaway Center, 1104 S. Wabash, on the first floor.
