FRENCH LOVE

“Paris, ohlala” ! “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ?” Declaimed in the language of Molière, these sentences do not fail to impact when speaking of France abroad. Because love is part of the French culture. And filmmakers emerging in France do not fail to deal with it. Through the sexual confusion and the male environment of Yohann Kouam’s The Return, through dance bodies and timidity in Jean-Charles Mbotti Malolo’s The Sense of Touch, through the complexity of traditional weddings in Zangro’s Destino but also through the difficulty to love that Alice Diop interrogates in TowardsTenderness, the short-films of this 3rd Season shake us, move us and amaze us by seizing a French, but mostly universal, feeling.

Our 2016 Ambassador: MELVIN VAN PEEBLES

Melvin Van Peebles is an Afro-American writer, musician, actor, producer, screenwriter and director.
After a stay in France, while he collaborated with the satirical magazine Hara Kiri, he directed films in the US. His best hit, Sweet Sweetback 's Baadaasssss Song, opened a door to Blaxploitation.

By accompanying Quartiers Lointains’ third Season, Melvin van Peebles reminds us that the passion and perseverance are key drivers for storytelling.

Towards Tenderness d’Alice Diop, documentary

(40 min) Les Films du Worso

 
"Towards tenderness" is an intimate exploration of a masculine territory in a French suburb. Following a group of men’s vagrancy, we stride a universe where female bodies are nothing more than ghostly and virtual silhouettes.

Film’s Career:

Prix INA Réalisatrice créative et Prix du Public, Festival du Films de Femmes de Créteil 2016 (France) - Festival du cinéma de Brive 2016 (France)
 

The Return by Yohann Kouam, fiction

(22min) Mezzanine Films

It's been a year since his big brother left, and Willy, 15, can't wait for him to return. Willy thought he knew everything about Theo, but when he arrives back in the block, Willy discovers a secret about him...

 

Film’s Career:

UniFrance Award, Festival OffCourt de Trouville 2013 (France) – Alternative Spirit Award, Rhode Island Film Festival 2014 (USA) – Best Short Film for Youth, Festival KUKI 2014 (Allemagne) - Winner, Zubroffka International Short Film Festival 2014 (Pologne) – Grand Prize, Festival Chéries-Chéris 2014 (France) – City Award, Festival Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux 2014 (France) – Best Foreign Movie Award, Reel It Out Virginia 2014 (USA) - Best Actor Award Yann Gaël - Festival Cinébanlieue et Festival National de Hyères-les-Palmiers 2014 (France) – Broadcasted on France 3 TV

The Sense of Touch by Jean-Charles Mbotti Mololo, animation

(15min) Folimage Studio

Chloe and Louis are deaf and mute. They are secretly in love but they don’t admit it. Their gestures substitute for words. They dance, each word is choreography.

 

Film’s Career:
Talents en Court Award, Urban Film Festival 2014 (France) – 1st National Prize, Festival international du court-métrage de Lille 2014 (France) –Best Swiss Made Award, Festival Schnitt 2014 (Switzerland) – Audience Award, Annual Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Invitational Festival 2014 (USA) – Audience Award, International Weekend of Animation 2014 (Germany) – 3rd Audience Award, Big Cartoon Festival 2014 (Russia) – Special Jury Mention, Festival du film d’animation de Séoul 2014 (Corea) – Grand Prize, Festival Animatou de Genève 2014 (Switzerland) -  Promotion Award, Festival Cinanima 2014 (Portugal) – Excellence Award, Animation division of 18th Japan Media Arts Festival 2014 (Japan) - Grand Prize, Trickfilm Festival 2015 (Germany) – Broadcasted on ARTE TV

Destino de Zangro, fiction

(26 min) Bien ou Bien Productions

Two young guys from the neighborhood (Loïc and Mehdi) have set up a little business filming arabic wedding celebrations and then editing them in their mini van, their ‘audiovisual laboratory’. But when Mehdi starts to film the wedding of Leila, his pretty ex-girlfriend… Destiny happens.

 

Film’s Career:

Jury Grand Prize, Festival Ascona 2014 (Switzerland) – Jury Prize, Festival Cinema et Migration 2014 (Morocco) – Best Script, Festival International du Film de Tanger 2014 (Morocco) – Claude Pinoteau Award, Festival National du Film Hyères les Palmiers  2014 (France) – Jury Coup de coeur, Festival International du Film de Vébron 2014 (France) – Prize of the Fogelsong Family Foundation of the USA,
Festival International des Télévisions locales 2014 (Slovaquia) – Public Award, Festival International de Contis 2014 (France) – Best Male Interpretation Salim Kechiouche, Festival Mulhouse tout court 2014 (France) – Golden Fifog, Festival International du Film Oriental de Genève 2014 (Switzerland) – Jury Award and Audience Award, Festival Européen du court-métrage de Bordeaux 2014 (France) – Broadcasted on France 3 TV

SEASON 3 DIRECTORS
Click on the pictures
 

Quartiers * Lointains

France / Quartiers Lointains - ­ Siniman Films ­ 2015-2017 / Sudu Connexion 2018