Visit the French-speaking world without leaving Central Arkansas through the Tournées French Film Festival at the University of Central Arkansas.
The Tournées French Film Festival is from Oct. 30 to Nov. 13 at the Brewer-Hegeman Conference Center on the campus of UCA. An audience discussion with a panel of UCA faculty will follow each film, and refreshments will be served.
All films are free and open to the public, have English subtitles and will begin at 6 p.m.
A special family-friendly screening of the animated film “The King and the Mockingbird” will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7. Refreshments and interactive games for kids of all ages begin at 5 p.m.
Dr. Knox, assistant professor of French and festival organizer, said she is “grateful for the French American Cultural Exchange for this opportunity to share some of the most prizewinning French and Francophone films of 2014 with the larger central Arkansas community, and eagerly anticipates the productive conversation each interactive faculty panel and audience discussion will generate.”
The UCA Tournées Festival is made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the US, the Centre National de la Cinématographie et de l’Image Animée, the Franco-American Cultural Fund, the UCA College of Liberal Arts and the UCA Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures.
For more information on the films and the event, visit the Facebook page: facebook.com/ucafrenchfilmfestival2015.
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Tournées French Film Festival Schedule
All screenings begin at 6 p.m. at the Brewer-Hegeman Conference Center, unless otherwise indicated:
Friday, Oct. 30: “Clouds of Sils Maria” (R)
“Clouds of Sils Maria”: A masterpiece starring Kristen Stewart and Juliette Binoche. Maria (Binoche) is considering whether to star in the play that launched her career twenty years ago. The only catch? She must now play the part of the spurned middle-aged lover, while a younger actress gets the lead role. What ensues is a tangled web of seduction.
Tuesday, Nov. 3: “Girlhood” (not rated by the MPAA)
“Girlhood”: This breathtaking meditation on female adolescence that explores a young girl, Merieme’s, life in the Parisian “outer city.” Merieme rejects the school system that rejects her, and falls in with a trio of tough girls caught between the simple pleasures of adolescence and the mature environment in which they find themselves.
Friday, Nov. 6: “Because I Was a Painter” (not rated by the MPAA)
*The director of the performing arts group CORE, who will be performing on Monday, November 9 in Reynolds, will be a special guest speaker following the film.
“Because I Was a Painter”: A breathtaking series of interviews with artists who created artworks during their internment in concentration camps during World War II. The film asks, can a drawing of unimaginable horrors, for instance, ever be considered “beautiful”? What, exactly, is “beauty”?
Saturday, Nov. 7, at 5 p.m.: “The King and the Mockingbird” (not rated by the MPAA, but animated film intended for child audiences)
Screening begins at 5:30 p.m. and will be preceded by a French fair starting at 5 p.m. with activities and games open to kids of all ages.
“The King and the Mockingbird”: An animated film adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep” that was only seen for the first time in the United States in 2014. Set in the fictional medieval region of Tachycardia under the universally despised monarch Charles XVI, the film—a story of love and resisting tyrannical rule—features not only rocket travel but also giant robots.
Tuesday, Nov. 10: “2 Days, 1 Night” (PG-13 for mature thematic elements)
“2 Days, 1 Night”: A Belgian factory employee, Sandra, tries to return to work after an extended medical leave only to find that her boss is offering each of her coworkers $1,100 to cover Sandra’s shifts. She has one weekend to convince each of them that they should give up the bonus so that she can have her job back. Will she succeed?
Friday, Nov. 13: “Timbuktu” (PG-13 for some violence and mature thematic elements)
“Timbuktu”: The film explores daily life in Timbuktu, Mali under an increasingly absurd fundamentalist regime. “Timbuktu” presents these horribly misguided dogmatists as multidimensional characters, while simultaneously condemning their intolerant way of life as criminal.
