JMJ International Pictures
35th Anniversary of the landmark classic restored in 4K
Publicist: Sylviane RUDIER +33 6 40 49 87 79 [email protected]
Sales & distribution: Patrick AGLAE: + 33 7 84 94 18 44 [email protected]
“Education is the key that opens the second door to our freedom”
QUOTE IN SUGAR CANE ALLEY A FILM BY EUZHAN PALCY
- 2 -
S YNOPSIS —
1930: on a sugar cane plantation in Martinique lives José, a bright mischievous 11- year-old and his grandmother, a tough, illiterate, wise, illiterate woman determined to save him from the hard life she has known. When Jose wins a scholarship, she is ready to sacrifice everything for his chance at an education and an escape from the fields.
- 3 -
“MASTERPIECE” ROGER EBERT CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
“THE DEBUT OF A CONSIDERABLE ARTIST” DAVID ROBINSON THE TIMES
**** VENICE FILM FESTIVAL ‘83 SILVER LION BEST ACTRESS UNICEF PRIZE SIGNIS PRIZE
CESAR FOR BEST FIRST FILM ‘84 HOUSTON WORLDFEST SPECIAL JURY AWARD ‘84 THE FIRST WINNER OF THE FESPACO AUDIENCE AWARD ‘85
AN IMPRESSED ROBERT REDFORD BECAME THE YOUNG DIRECTOR’S GODFATHER
THE FILM THAT CONVINCED MARLON BRANDO TO MAKE HIS COME BACK ON THE SILVER SCREEN AFTER 9 YEARS OF RETIREMENT
THE MOST STUDIED FRENCH FILM IN THE UNITED-STATES
THE FILM THAT LAUNCHED THE SECONDARY SCHOOL FILM CURRICULUM IN THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
SOUTH AFRICAN LEGENDARY NOVELIST ANDRE BRINK USED TO SCREEN SUGAR ALLEY IN SECRET TO HIS STUDENTS DURING APARTHEID
- 4 -
C REDITS — Directed by: Euzhan Palcy Written by: Euzhan Palcy based on Black Shack Alley by Joseph Zobel Music by: Malavoi Cinematographer: Dominique Chapuis
Film Editing: Marie-Josèphe Yoyotte Sound: Pierre Befve Production Design: At Hoang Costume design: Isabelle Filleul de Brohy Running time: 103 minutes Country: France (Martinique) Production: Michel Loulergue, Alix Régis, Claude Nedjar, Jean Luc Ormières
C AST —
Darling Légitimus — M'Man Tine Marie-Jo Descas — Léopold’s Mother Garry Cadenat — José Marie-Ange Farot — Madame Saint Louis Douta Seck — Old Médouze Henri Melon — Teacher Mr. Roc Joby Bernabé — Mr. Saint-Louis Eugène Mona — Twelve Toes Francisco Charles — The Boss Laurent Saint-Cyr — Léopold
4K DCP -1.85 presented by JMJ International Pictures with the support of CNC. 4K digital restoration carried out by Eclair from the original 35mm negative and supervised by director Euzhan Palcy, with cinematographer Guillaume Schiffman (The Artist). Head of the project Patrick Aglaé for JMJ International Pictures.
- 5 -
A WARDS & H ONORARY S CREENINGS . —
2019 TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX Poet of Relation: The Essential Euzhan Palcy
2019 Sep 27 opening of the Amanda Theater (Ava DuVernay)
2019 Locarno Film Festival: “47 Shades of Black” 100 years of Black Cinema
2018 BFI London Film Festival Treasures of the Archives presented by Head of BFI National Archives Robin Baker
2018 - Opening of Femmes, Femmes: 100 réalisatrices - 100 films (Women, Women: 100 Female Directors, 100 Films) retrospective series of films at Cinémathèque Quebecoise (Montréal)
2011 - Cannes Classics - Festival de Cannes official selection
2011 - Museum of Modern Art, MoMA (as part of Filmmaker in Focus: Euzhan Palcy mid-career retrospective)
2007 - Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade Act (1807) in the British Empire, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.
1985 - FESPACO – Audience Award *
1985 - Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame Award, Paramount Theatre Oakland, CA
1984 - Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival - Special Jury Award
1984 - Cesar Award for Best First Film **
1983 - 40th Venice Film Festival – Silver Lion **
1983 - 40th Venice Film Festival – Best Actress Awards **
1983 - 40th Venice Film Festival – Unicef Prize
1983 - 40th Venice Film Festival – OCIC (Signis) Award
* A First for a film ** A first for a black director
- 6 -
H ERITAGE - Euzhan Palcy’s first feature, “Sugar Cane Alley”, released in 1983 and based on the eponymous novel by Joseph Zobel, literally put the French West Indies on the map of world cinema. It is also one of the most honoured (17 awards internationally) and globally distributed films of that year. Moreover, it enabled the filmmaker to become a trailblazer. She was the first black director awarded the French César; the only woman to have ever directed Marlon Brando; and the first black female director ever to be produced by a major Hollywood studio, MGM.
In August 1983, the tiny Caribbean island of Martinique watches itself on screen for the very first time. All the nation’s movie theatres are packed. Exceptional dispensation is even made for hospital patients for this film that simply must be seen. “Sugar Cane Alley” is a massive hit in Martinique, besting “E.T”.’s domestic ticket sales by fourfold.
The project germinated as a daydream of an adolescent would-be filmmaker. A headstrong young girl, she lived in a rural Martinique village, and her perpetual curiosity was often at odds with the assumed knowledge of the grownups around her.
Discovering Joseph Zobel’s “Sugar Cane Alley”, originally a gift from her mother to temper her implacability, changes her life forever. The book henceforth accompanies her everywhere. After attending a village screening of Marcel Camus’ “Black Orpheus,” the die is truly cast. It’s an artistic awakening. She dreams of becoming a filmmaker and adapting the book that’s her constant companion.
- 7 -
Now enrolled at the Sorbonne, the budding young filmmaker is polishing a screenplay. She’s ecstatic when one of friends introduces her to Laura Truffaut—whose father François goes on to mentor the budding filmmaker.
She sets out to find Joseph Zobel, who now lives in the south of France. No one has ever discussed his book like she. Then and there, it’s decided that Euzhan Palcy will direct the film adaptation of his best seller, long banned in the French West Indies. Zobel even grants the young filmmaker a free and unlimited option to the book, which is unheard of!
The screenplay is unanimously awarded an advance on receipts by the National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC) in Paris. The producers then struggle to raise funds for a film whose mere title is offensive. But it’s actually Aimé Césaire, the Martinique poet, author, and politician, and then-mayor of the capital Fort-de-France, who ultimately exerts his considerable influence on the City Council for it to exceptionally fund the project. The vote is unanimous, and thanks to Césaire, Martinique itself has a stake in “Sugar Cane Alley”.
Palcy casts Darling Légitimus to play the leading female role. Though the septuagenarian matriarch has appeared in over 150 films, working with many greats—Simone Signoret, Sacha Guitry, Jean-Claude Brialy, Marlon Brando, Bernardo Bertolucci, Louis Malle, to name but a few—she’s only played supporting roles, and mostly domestics. “Sugar Cane Alley” is her first leading role. Douta Seck, the legendary Senegalese actor, who performed Césaire’s The Tragedy of King Christopher at the Comédie Française to universal acclaim, is suffering from declining health. But Palcy casts him nevertheless, and he realizes one his greatest dreams, to portray the elder Médouze, mentor to the protagonist, José. Garry Cadenat plays the young José, a terrific discovery. The Martinique band Malavoi scores the film.
- 8 -
The 40th Venice International Film Festival selects “Sugar Cane Alley” among its Official Competition. Bernardo Bertolucci presides over an international jury including filmmakers Jack Clayton (UK), Peter Handke (Germany), Léon Hirszman (Brazil), Marta Meszaros (Hungary), Nagisa Oshima (Japan), Gleb Panfilov (Russia), Bob Rafelson (USA), Ousmane Sembène (Senegal), Mrinal Sen (India), Alain Tanner (Switzerland), and Agnes Varda (France). The competition is even more formidable: Ingmar Bergman, Jean-Luc Godard, Costa-Gavras, Alain Resnais, Andrzej Wajda, Robert Altman, and Georges Rouquier.
“Sugar Cane Alley” is awarded the Silver Lion for Best First Film (a first for a black director), the Volpi Cup for Best Actress (a first for a black actor or actress), the UNICEF Prize, and the International Catholic Organization for Cinema and Audio-visual (OCIC) Prize.
The most celebrated film of the 40th Venice Film Festival is immediately sold for Japanese release, unleashing a slew of international sales for a work of such universal significance. “Education is the key to the greatest freedom of all” is an essential quote from “Sugar Cane Alley” which still resonates worldwide. The liberating power of education and culture on humanity is a given. The musical score, which opens and closes the film is internationally recognized.
In France, “Sugar Cane Alley” has an extraordinary first-run release of 40 weeks, with Parisian spectators queuing up for hours. The American scholar and activist Angela Davis is among the first to see it.
In March 1984, the legendary actor, dancer and director Gene Kelly hosts the 9th annual César Awards, the French equivalent of the Academy Awards.
- 9 -
That night, Palcy wins the César (French Oscar) for Best First Feature Film, breaking the directorial glass ceiling in the French cinema: the first female director to win a César (for a feature film) and the first black director male or female This landmark event is comparable to Sidney Poitier becoming the first black man to win the Oscar® for Best Actor in 1964
Robert Redford is impressed by “Sugar Cane Alley”, and selects Palcy to participate in the 1985 Sundance Directors Lab. At that year’s annual Sundance Film Festival, “Sugar Cane Alley” is frequently screened by popular demand. Redford becomes Palcy’s American mentor. On the other side of the globe, South Africa is rocked by violence and international outrage against apartheid. Renowned South African author/activist André Brink, who wrote the best seller “A Dry White Season,” is under government surveillance. Surreptitiously, he screens Palcy’s film for his students, as a powerful testament on education.
In March that year, the 9th annual Pan African Film Festival of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, founded by the legendary Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène, is held in the African capital of cinema. The largest film festival in Africa inaugurates its Audience Prize as it selects a non-African film for the first time ever in competition. “Sugar Cane Alley” wins the Festival’s very first Audience Award.
In 1988, Palcy attends a screening of her film at the Los Angeles home of American agent Jay Kanter, with his client Marlon Brando, who specifically requested it. The legendary actor is deeply moved, and the young filmmaker’s talent especially impresses him. He comes out of his 9-year retirement specifically to play the anti-apartheid attorney in her second feature film, “A Dry White Season.” And Hollywood is abuzz as the living legend agrees to do it gratis!
- 10 -
In 1990, “Sugar Cane Alley” launches CNC’s Collège au Cinéma (Secondary school film curriculum). In 2010, honouring its 20th anniversary, Costa-Gavras, Cinémathèque Française’s president, announces that more students have watched this film than any other in context of this cinematic educational program. In the U.S., “Sugar Cane Alley” is equally as popular in university French and Francophone Studies programs as Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows.”
On March 25, 2007, the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, site of the primary royal museums in London, screens “Sugar Cane Alley”. The film launches a global retrospective of Palcy’s career in honour of the bicentennial of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act 1807, which declared unlawful the slave trade in the British Empire. This is intentionally timed, as the British Empire occupied Martinique many times during the Napoleonic Wars, influencing the history of slavery there.
On May 13, 2011, the Cannes Film Festival honours Euzhan Palcy. “Sugar Cane Alley” is inducted into the Cannes Classics roster devoted to cinematic masterpieces. The filmmaker is honoured in the presence of French Minister of Culture, Frédéric Mitterrand and Festival CEO Thierry Frémaux. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York subsequently opens its program “Filmmaker in Focus: Euzhan Palcy” with a new print of “Sugar Cane Alley”. The film is now part of MoMA's permanent collection.
“Sugar Cane Alley” has inspired artists worldwide. During promotion of her film “Mudbound” in September 2017, the young filmmaker Dee Rees recalled how her mother and she regularly watched her VHS cassette of “Sugar Cane Alley” when she was young.
In February 2018, the great American painter Ellen Gallagher, recipient of the American Academy Award in Art, said that “Sugar Cane Alley” played a critical role in her artistic development. At her specific request, the film was screened during that same Black History Month at the Los Angeles gallery Hauser and Wirth, the largest in the United States. It represents among others Louise Bourgeois, Paul McCarthy, Mark Bradford, and Amy Sherald, the official portraitist of former First Lady Michelle Obama.
On July 2, 2018, the Cinémathèque québécoise in Montreal chose “Sugar Cane Alley” to open its Women, Women: 100 Female Directors, 100 Films) retrospective series of films from around the world and all epochs. On October, 19 2018 , The BFI London Film Festival hosted the 35th anniversary of the release of SUGAR CANE ALLEY.
- 11 -
- EUZHAN PALCY -
• The first black female director produced by a Hollywood major company. • The first black director winner of a Cesar Award. • Member of the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts & Science. • Member of the Cesar Academy. • Honorary Citizen of New York, New Orleans, Atlanta, Sarasota.
Born in Martinique, Euzhan Palcy is a film director, writer, and producer. In 1983, she directed Sugar Cane Alley, putting the French West Indies on the world cinema stage. This acclaimed movie won the Silver Lion and Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival, and the prestigious Cesar Award (French Academy Award) for best first film, making Euzhan Palcy the first black director (male or female) to be granted this prestigious award.
In 1989, she wrote and directed the anti-apartheid film “A Dry White Season” and became the first black female director produced by a Hollywood major film studio (MGM). She successfully brought Marlon Brando back to the cinema screens as an anti-apartheid lawyer alongside Donald Sutherland, Susan Sarandon, and Jürgen Prochnow.
To make an accurate portrait, she put her life in danger and travelled to South Africa defying the secret services of the apartheid regime with the help of Dr. Nthato Motlana, Nelson Mandela’s physician and friend who smuggled her in Soweto. She posed as an undercover recording artist looking for choristers while she interviewed secretly, the victims of the apartheid regime. To give a voice to oppressed South Africans, she convinced the studio to hire an all-South African black cast (Zakes Mokae, Winston Ntshona, John Kani, Thoko Ntshinga) rather than African-Americans like it was the case. With her accomplices, she ex- filtrated them to London for a fake play to get them to the shooting place in Zimbabwe just next door. MGM released A Dry White Season on 20 September 1989. The South African regime prohibited the film, enraged by the truths exposed to what they were doing to the people who opposed them.
Euzhan Palcy is the only woman and the only black director (male or female) who succeeded to direct an anti-apartheid narrative feature film during Nelson Mandela’s 27 years in prison. On April 28, 2017, as part of the Freedom Day, the Republic of South Africa bestowed on Euzhan Palcy the Order of the Companions of Oliver Reginald Tambo “for her excellent contribution to the liberation struggle by exposing South African social injustices through an international film that strengthened the revolution against apartheid”. This order is the highest awards that South Africa, through its President, bestows on eminent foreign nationals.
- 12 -
In 1992, she wrote and directed the musical fantasy film “SIMEON” with Kassav, the Godfathers of Zouk music and premiered the Caribbean musical fantasy genre.
Technically, “SIMEON” was the first French movie produced with CGI VFX & digital scans. Palcy won the Silver Raven Award at the Brussels International Fantasy Film Festival competing against Sam Raimi’s “Army of Darkness” & Joe Dante’s “Matinee.” She also won the Philadelphia Film Festival’s Audience Award. The Los Angeles Times wrote, ‘One of the sunniest and most charming ghost stories ever told’ (In 2011, The MoMA bought a copy of SIMEON after its New York premiere at the museum, had literally sparked dancing in the aisles of the theatre).
Thereafter in 1994, she filmed the documentary trilogy “Aimé Césaire: A Voice for History ” reissued in 2006 as “Aimé Césaire: A Voice for the 21st Century ”.
In 1995, the newly elected President Mandela invited her to South Africa (during the first anniversary of his election); Therefore, she directed and produced a never before seen interview.
In 1998, she directed and co-produced “ Wonderful World of Disney Ruby Bridges ”. As a first for Disney and for a black director, President Bill Clinton joined Michael Eisner in introducing the show.
In 2001, she signed “The Killing Yard “ (feat. Alan Alda, Morris Chestnut and Rose McGowan), a Paramount/Showtime original picture about the bloodshed and the aftermath of New York’s Attica prison uprising in 1971, which produced the classic legal case to determine if all Americans are entitled to receive a fair trial, even prison inmates convicted of other crimes. The film received the Silver Gavel Award, American Bar Association’s highest form of recognition. The award honours outstanding work by those “helping to foster the American public’s understanding of law and the legal system”.
In 2006, she directed the French documentary Parcours de Dissidents (“The Journey of the Dissidents”) which tells the incredible story of 5,000 young French West Indians fighters (boys and girls) during World War II. Her struggle for their national recognition was officially acknowledged by former French President Nicolas Sarkozy who bestowed on them France’s highest award: the Legion of Honour on behalf of all those courageous war veterans.
In 2007, she directed the historical drama, “The Bridges of Bourbon Island”, about the colonization of the Reunion Island during the 17th century (feat. Marie Piot, Jean-Yves Berteloot, Sara Martins, Cécile Cassel, William Nadylam, Bruno Slagmulder, André Penvern). That same year in a poll by the BBC/British Film Institute citing “The 100 Most Iconic Black Screen Icons of the Last 100 years”, Euzhan Palcy ranked among the top three in both the female and directors categories.
In 2011, Cannes Film Festival paid her a tribute and the New York City’s Museum of Modern Art organized her mid-career retrospective. President Sarkozy asked her to create a “short cinematic synopsis” to launch France’s National Tribute to Aimé Césaire at the Pantheon;
- 13 -
Later that year, Palcy was decorated with the Officer Medal of the National Order of Merit by President Sarkozy.
In 2013, she received the Henri Langlois Honorary “World Cinema” Prize and chaired the Grand Jury of the 23rd Pan African Film Festival of Ouagadougou that awards the coveted Golden Stallion Yennenga, its highest award, which marked a first for women. The festival founded in 1969 by Ousmane Sembène, the father of African cinema, is Africa’s largest recurrent cultural event.
On April 28, 2017, as part of the Freedom Day, the Republic of South Africa bestowed upon Euzhan Palcy the Order of the Companions of Oliver Reginald Tambo “for her excellent contribution to the liberation struggle by exposing South African social injustices through an international film that strengthened the revolution against apartheid”. This order is the highest honour in South Africa for a foreign dignitary.
On March 2018, the International Slavery Museum of Liverpool inducted her on its Black Achiever’s Wall as part of its commemoration of the centennial of the woman’s vote.
For Women History Month 2019, the Wrap released in its all-time list of 17 women who revolutionized Hollywood. The list included Palcy. She is one of the five living women in this list with Oprah Winfrey.
On March 8, 2019, The Telegraph included Palcy in its all-time list of 35 Women who changed the history of cinema,
Euzhan Palcy is an honorary citizen of New York, New Orleans, Atlanta, Sarasota. A high school and a road in her native Martinique and a theatre near Amiens bear her name.
Filmography: "Sugar Cane Alley, A Dry White Season, SIMEON, Parcours de Dissidents (The Journey of the Dissidents), Aimé Césaire, a Voice for 21st century, Césaire/Senghor - L’Ami Fondamental, Wonderful World of Disney Ruby Bridges, The Killing Yard, Les Mariées de l’Isle Bourbon (The Brides of Bourbon Island), L’Atelier du Diable (The Devil’s Workshop)
- 14 -
JMJ International Pictures – 17 rue du Colisée – 75008 Paris Téléphone + 33 78 494 1844 / + 33 176 54 52 81 [email protected]
- 15 -