Lecturer Sophia Niehaus Receives Grant to Support 2024 Festival of French Film at Brandeis
September 19, 2024
By: Kathleen McMahan
Sophia Niehaus, a Lecturer in French and Francophone Studies, received an Albertine Cinémathèque Festival Grant from the Albertine Foundation and Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States this past July. The grant will help support a Festival of French Film in Fall '24 at Brandeis, and is funded by Albertine Cinémathèque, a program of Albertine Foundation and Villa Albertine, with support from the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée, and the Fonds Culturel Franco-Americain SACEM.
The Dean's Office recently interviewed Niehaus about the Festival of French Film and what students can expect at the event.
Can you share a bit more about how the funds will be used and what you hope to achieve with the film festival?
The main objective of the festival is to give members of the Brandeis community access to a rich offering of French cinema. This festival is funded by a grant from the Villa Albertine, an initiative that supports opportunities for cultural exchange between France and the United States. In keeping with this mission, the festival’s six screenings are free, open to the public, and subtitled in English. They will be presented by speakers from different disciplines who will connect the films to a broader context.
What excites you most about receiving this grant?
A network of support and spirit of collaboration sprang to life around this project. Students and faculty from programs including French and Francophone Studies; Film, Television, and Interactive Media; and Fine Arts are working together to make this festival possible. The films will be shown in the Wasserman cinematheque. This makes it possible to keep the tradition of movie-going alive and accessible at a time when streaming has taken over much of our experience.
The interdisciplinary nature of the festival and the opportunity to connect French cinema to other fields of study are also very exciting. Our speakers include a film critic, a film director, faculty members from French and Francophone Studies, the Heller School and the English and African and African American programs. Their perspectives are sure to enrich our experience of the films.
Do you have a favorite film from the listing for 2024/25?
The films are all so different – it is hard to choose a favorite. Each film plays with conventions in original, thought-provoking ways. The first film of the festival, The Beast, has been billed as a horror movie, but there is no gore, no monsters, no blood splatter, and no slasher music. It is a riff on a Henry James story about two characters who meet in three different historical time periods -- pre-war Paris, Los Angeles in the 2010s, and the Paris of 2044. The Goldman Case recounts the criminal trial of a radical leftist from the 1970s, but the issues that are shown to arise during his trial – injustices relating to race and ideology – resemble those still evident in contemporary society. Colette and Justin is a documentary that looks at a crucial moment in geopolitics, but it is also a moving personal story about coming to terms with a complicated family legacy. The movie examines the central role that the director’s grandfather had in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s path toward independence in 1960. It is an honor that the director, Alain Kassanda, will be joining us for a post-screening Q&A.
Will there be opportunities for undergraduate students to get involved in the festival?
Yes! Our French and Francophone UDRs, Maria Antonio, Alicia Tsao, and Madeline Gorey have thought up creative giveaways and outreach strategies on social media, gaining practical experience in writing copy for publicity, marketing, and fundraising. The Film UDRs plan to collaborate with them. There is a new French Club whose members are interested in getting involved, and Dalya Koller, a student just back from France who writes for The Justice, is working on a piece about the festival for the arts and culture section of the paper.
How can films such as these supplement or add value to French and Francophone Studies?
Cinema is an important element of French studies -- as a form of artistic expression, as technical innovation, an historical turning point... In this fall’s French and Francophone cinema course, we often discuss the connections between cultural values and artistic production. These films, different as they all are, demonstrate approaches to filmmaking that are closely tied to the culture in which they were created. They are unlike the usual fare found at mainstream American movie theatres. The French government supports smaller budget titles to protect the diversity of its cinematic production. Filmmakers can more easily afford to pursue subjects that risk being unpopular or controversial; they might be more willing to tackle hard questions without relenting to social pressures. The cultural insight that one can glean from cinema is great.
In a more general perspective, a film that resonates with us can expand our consciousness. It can make us more aware of the world and of our place within it, help us understand ourselves as well as others. Claire Denis, a great French filmmaker, once said that the films that move her are “the image of the world. Once we've seen them, they enter our memory, we can not erase them from ourselves.” I don’t know that it could be said any better than this.
The Albertine French Film Festival will take place from October 25 to November 19, 2024 in the Wasserman Cinematheque, Sachar International Center at Brandeis University. See the full schedule.