Film noir

The Montreal International Black Film
Festival presents cinematic selections
from the African diaspora

COLD CAPER: La Première étoile

by MALCOLM FRASER

On the occasion of its fifth year, the Montreal International Haitian Film Festival has undergone a re-branding to embrace the entire African diaspora. Henceforth known as the Montreal International Black Film Festival, the week-long celebration, spearheaded by local impresario Fabienne Colas, showcases a series of rare international films as well as spotlights on a few familiar names.

The fest kicks off with a tribute to famed Haitian-Québécois author, critic and filmmaker Dany Laferrière. A documentary on Laferrière will be screened followed by a live interview with the author; admission includes a copy of his latest novel, L’Énigme du retour. Cinéma du Parc will also screen the three adaptations of Laferrière’s work—Jacques W. Benoît’s Comment faire l’amour avec un nègre sans se fatiguer, John Lecuyer’s Le gout des jeunes filles and Laurent Cantet’s Vers le sud with Charlotte Rampling—as well as Laferrière’s directorial debut, Comment conquérir l’Amérique en une nuit.

Martinican director Lucien Jean-Baptiste will be on hand to present his festival prize-winner La Première étoile, an Afro-French family comedy about a father struggling to fulfill his promise to bring his kids on a ski holiday. Also in town is Heroes star Jimmy Jean-Louis, who appears in two of the festival’s picks: Life Outside of Pearl, a drama about a Haitian-American working-class family, and Soul Sisters, a story of friendship between an African-American woman and a Nigerian illegal immigrant. Soul Sisters director Rahman Oladigbolu will also be in attendance for this closing-night feature.

The festival also features a strong slate of documentaries from far and near. For the socially engaged, there are films like Des dieux et des hommes, about Haiti’s gay and transgendered community, and Poto Mitan, which addresses the struggles of women workers in the global economy. On the arts tip, there’s Jeremy Robins’ The Other Side of Water, about a group of young Haitian immigrants who bring voodoo-inspired “walking music” to their community in Brooklyn, Frantz Voltaire’s Maestro Issa, the fascinating story of Issa El Saieh, a Palestinian-American clarinetist who built his jazz career in Haiti, and Irene Lichtenstein’s Mario Benjamin, in which the eponymous Haitian artist discusses the perils of being a contemporary artist from a Third World country.

Closer to home, a number of docs spotlight the difficulties of immigrants integrating into Quebec society, from Au nom de la mère et du fils, set in Montreal’s troubled St-Michel neighbourhood, to La Couleur du temps, about the high number of Haitian youths incarcerated in Quebec prisons, and Québec, lieu de passage, which focuses on immigrants’ struggles in lily-white Quebec City.

As is often the case with Montreal’s myriad festivals, viewers will have the chance to check out several features that are otherwise hard to find. Some of the intriguing choices here include Chêne parfumé, an interracial love story set in 19th-century Cuba, African-American thriller Skin Deep, Toronto-based social drama A Winter Tale and local zombie thriller L’Obsession. All in all, a good way to catch some warmth before winter encroaches.

THE MONTREAL INTERNATIONAL
BLACK FILM FESTIVAL RUNS FROM
SEPT. 22–OCT. 4, WITH SCREENINGS AT
COMPLEXE CRISTINA, CENTRE
LEONARDO DA VINCI, NFB CINEMA
AND CINÉMA DU PARC. SEE
FESTIVALFILMHAITIEN.COM
FOR MORE DETAILS