In collaboration with Columbia Maison Française, The Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities is proud to co-sponsor the 2024 film festival entitled CINEMA/CARE.

Co-curators Fanny Guex, Shanny Peer, and Eva Martin are delighted to present three fiction films and four documentaries. This year, we present one U.S. and one New York City Premieres: The True Chronicle from the Last Century at the Blida-Joinville Psychiatric Hospital When Dr. Frantz Fanon was Head of the Fifth Ward, Between 1953 and 1956 directed by Abdenour Zahzah, and Madame Hofmann directed by Sébastien Lifshitz. Abdenour Zahzah and the main character of Sébastien Lifshitz’s last documentary, Madame Sylvie Hofmann herself, are coming to New York to discuss the films with you after the festival screenings.

About the Festival

The movies selected for this festival all explore the concept of care, defined in a broad sense, through French and Francophone cinema, ranging from women’s health care to mental health care, from the institutions and political theories of care to the intimate spheres of life, and from the first breath of life to the last one. We will consider how caring and (non-)caring are portrayed during crucial life moments and how they have been understood and represented in contemporary cinema.

The films selected chart the multi-faceted nature of care in the modern world. The True Chronicle from the Last Century at the Blida-Joinville Psychiatric Hospital When Dr. Frantz Fanon was Head of the Fifth Ward, Between 1953 and 1956 is a dramatic exploration of the revolutionary and postcolonial work of Dr. Fanon in a psychiatric clinic in Algeria in the 1950s. On the Adamant follow patients and caregivers at a psychiatric center located in the Seine River in central Paris today. On the Edge and Madame Hofmann depict the devastating impact of COVID-19 and the austerity of the healthcare system. The intimate bond between caregivers and care recipients, in particular between a child and her nanny, is explored through Ama Gloria. Our Body questions what it means to live in a woman’s body through a documentary about the gynecology ward of a public hospital in Paris, and Lingui, the Sacred Bonds shows a mother-daughter relationship and fight to get an abortion in Chad where it is not only condemned by religion, but also by law.

Full Schedule

Thursday, September 12 | 6:30 PM | U.S. Premiere
The True Chronicle from the Last Century at the Blida-Joinville Psychiatric Hospital When Dr. Frantz Fanon was Head of the Fifth Ward, Between 1953 and 1956 (Chroniques fidèles survenues au siècle dernier à l'hôpital psychiatrique Blida-Joinville, au temps où le Docteur Frantz Fanon était chef de la cinquième division entre 1953 et 1956)
Abdenour Zahzah, 2024, 90 min.
Q&A with director Abdenour Zahzah, Madeleine Dobie, and Camille Robcis
Katharina Otto-Bernstein Screening Room, Lenfest Center

Thursday, September 19 | 6:30 PM
On the Edge (État limite)
Nicolas Peduzzi, 2023, 103 min.
Q&A with Rishi Goyal and Thomas Dodman
East Gallery, Maison Française, Buell Hall

Thursday, September 26 | 6:30 PM
Ama Gloria
Marie Amachoukeli, 2023, 84 min.
Film introduced by Fanny Guex
East Gallery, Maison Française, Buell Hall

Thursday, October 3 | 6:30 PM
On the Adamant (Sur l'adamant)
Nicolas Philibert, 2023, 109 min.
Q&A with Lena Green and Shanny Peer
East Gallery, Maison Française, Buell Hall

Wednesday, October 9 | 6:30 PM
Our Body (Notre Corps)
Claire Simon, 2023, 168 min.
Film introduced by Aubrey Gabel
East Gallery, Maison Française, Buell Hall

Thursday, October 17 | 6:30 PM
Lingui, the Sacred Bonds (Lingui, les liens sacrés)
Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, 2022, 87 min.
Q&A with Abosede A. George, Venus Mahmoodi, and Emi Schlosser
East Gallery, Maison Française, Buell Hall

Tuesday, October 29 | 6:30 PM | NYC Premiere
Madame Hofmann
Sébastien Lifshitz, 2024, 104 min.
Q&A with Sylvie Hofmann and Fanny Guex
East Gallery, Maison Française, Buell Hall

Screenings will be introduced or followed by panel discussions with film directors and invited scholars.