This year’s New Voices in French Cinema includes the new season of Quartiers Lointains, a touring, short film program which has highlighted PanAfrican and French multicultural filmmakers since 2013.
Founded by French-Burkinabè film critic and distributor Claire Diao with support by filmmaker Alice Diop, the Quartiers Lointains program comes to FIAF on the occasion of its 10th anniversary with four new, inspiring short films.
Both screenings at 4pm and 7:30pm will be followed by a Q&A with Claire Diao and writer-director Aude N’Guessan Forget (Anansi, 2022)
Anansi
US Premiere
Dir. Aude N’Guessan Forget, 2022, 20 min
In French with English subtitles
Eden, an Afro hairdresser, suffers with recurrent stomach pains, not remedied by doctors. When her pain grows too great to bear, daily life becomes impossible.
2022 Best Actress Award, Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival
2023 Festival international du court-métrage de Clermont Ferrand
Bulles d'air
NY Premiere
Dir. Daouda Diakhaté, 2018, 31 min
In French with English subtitles
After a long stay at a psychiatric hospital, 30-year-old Omar returns to the neighborhood where he lives with his father and little sister. His only interest becomes digging up news about his ex-girlfriend Ania.
2019 Bordeaux International Independent Film Festival
2019 Palm Springs International Film Festival – ShortFest
Land of Shadow (Terre d'ombres)
US Premiere
Dir. Fatima Kaci, 2021, 38 min
In French with English subtitles
Bobigny’s Muslim cemetery sits in an industrial zone in a working-class suburb of Paris. Director Faima Kaci discovers the rituals and voices of its visitors, providing glimpses of shared Franco-Algerian memories.
On the Surface
NY Premiere
Dir. Fan Sissoko, 2021, 4 min
In French with English subtitles
A young Black woman swims in the Iceland sea, meditating on raising her child in a country where she is a foreigner. In the icy waters she relives her traumatic pregnancy and postnatal depression, facing fears and healing her wounds while surrounded by nature.
Special Jury Mention, 2022 Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival
About Claire Diao
Claire Diao is a French-Burkinabè film critic and distributor. She founded the short film program Quartiers Lointains in 2013, co-founded the Pan-African film critic magazine AWOTELE in 2015, and has been the CEO of the Pan-African distribution company Sudu Connexion since 2016.
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In 2018, Diao received the Beaumarchais Medal from the French Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers (SACD) for her essay Double Vague, le nouveau souffle du cinéma français (Au Diable Vauvert, ed. 2017). She worked as TV host and columnist for Canal +, France O and TV5 Monde. She is a member of the African Film Critic Federation, the Burkinabè Film Critic organization and a mentor for the Durban Talents (South Africa). Claire Diao is also a member of the selection committees of Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (France), and FESPACO (Burkina Faso). In 2021, she was invited by FIAF to co-curate the festival Burning Brighter: New French Filmmakers. In 2023, she joined Lincoln Center’s team as a programmer at large after being in the Director’s Fortnight and French Cesar Academy’s committees. In 2023, she received the Knight of the Order of Merit of the Arts from the Burkina Faso government.
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About Aude N’Guessan Forget
Aude is the writer and director of Anansi. She first trained as an actor. In 2017 she turned to directing, working with women learning French at the Graines de Solei theater company, housed in the Lavoir Moderne in Paris. At the same time, Aude began writing her own projects and followed a screenwriting course at iCIFAP in 2019. She participated in the FEMIS film school Residency program to train as a director. She is currently developing her first fiction feature.
