For This Is My
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Catherine Samie Sylvie teStud hanS daCoSta St-VAl e at for this is my body A film by miChelange quay e at for this is my body International Sales A fi lm by Michelange Quay Memento fi lms international 6, cité paradis - 75 010 paris t : + 33 1 53 34 90 20 – f : + 33 1 42 47 11 24 sales@memento-fi lms.com Haiti-France / 2007 / 105’ / 35mm www.memento-fi lms.com 1.85 / color / Dolby SRD ” Forgive them, for they know not what they do… Forgive them for they are hungry, so hungry… ” A waking dream… A visceral, hypnotic trip that will take us to the spiritual core of the suffering of Haiti. MAdAMe has come to feed the starving black masses and they have come to be fed. This hunger, this desire will bring Madame out into the real Haiti, where she will for the first time see and hear the land and its people, smell the reality of their suffering, the reality of her own body. She will at last touch, and be touched. Although some of the scenes for this DIRECTOR’S NOTE fi lm where also shot in other places, its absolute refence point is the country of my origins, Haiti. The fi lm was nour- ished by what I’ve seen, heard or felt there, and these impressions rearranged themselves into a invisible world with its own language. It’s a completely subjective vision, a dialogue between present day images and ancestral memories, an exchange between the generations inside me… a repository of unconscious themes – much like a dream. The icons and actions that contribute to this atmosphere should, like in poetry, allow each viewer his own dialogue with the image on the screen as well his or her image of himself – an infi nite double mirror of meanings and identities most appropriate to the ambig- uous political and spiritual situation that Eat For This Is My Body illustrates. The fi lm plays out in a fi lmic “no time” somewhere between documentary and surrealism, a space somewhere between the terrain of the political pamphlet and the realm of lyric poetry, where contem- porary iconography and ancient arche- type should intermingle in a way that is, in my sense, typical of Haiti, a country that has been swallowing and reinvent- ing icons, “creole - izing” them, since its beginnings, in the nightmare years of slavery, a country whose Vaudou religion melds the most concrete elements of everyday past, present, and future into one twisting, turning tree of dreams. Most of the roles are played by non-actors. Actually, the only roles for which I did cast experienced actors were those of Madame (Sylvie Testud) and her Mother (Catherine Samie), perhaps intuitively, because these two white women were strangers to Haiti, “actors” by essence – strangers to the dream, and thus dreamers themselves – perhaps echoes of Haiti by white relief. They played their roles face to face with Haitian non actors who bore with them the undeniable honesty of a “real” person on screen, and this hybrid performance, at the same time ultrareal and completely theatiricl and arbitrary brings to fore the feeling “what is real?”, a dissonance that enhances the dream experience of the film’s viewing. The film plays out in a state of narrative self consciousness, similar not only to the dreaming state, and to the suggestive state of hypnosis, but also to their sister in the narrative arts – allegory. It allows us to plunge into the soup of our unconscious spiritual, political, and sexual symbols, in order to explore, play, fear and rejoice in them in a natural and healthy way. First and last, Haiti is the land of my fathers, the land of my mothers. They told me that this little island, tiny in the shadow of the American colossus, is where something new happened – 1804, a revolution – slaves, killing their masters, reinventing their names, creating new Gods, rewriting History. They told me we turned distant forgotten Africa into a Nirvana a bridge of resistance between the ancestors and the unborn. That we turned the shame of slavery into a badge of honor, an arrogant, glorious fl ag declaring each year to be the Year Zero. Now, it seems that this island is a lost phantom boat, abandoned in the middle of the diplomatic sea, cursed, adrift in its own dreams of glory, nightmares of submission. Perhaps while some dreamed of conquest, building castles, and pillaging the treasury, others where patiently dreaming of a good harvest, hoping to win a cockfi ght, or that week’s lottery, dreaming the road from the obscure countryside to the nearest big city, from the capital, Port au Prince to New York or Miami, or Philadelphia, or Paris. From far away, I hear many call Haiti a hell, a nightmare – they call it a nation that does not exist, but is a nation a president, a throne, a fi nancial aid package, an interim government, a Constitution, or is it more than anything, the land of our fathers, the land of our mothers ? Michelange Quay The director : Michelange Quay Biography Michelange Quay was born the 5th of January 1974. in 1994, he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Cinema production and in Anthropology, at the University of Miami, Florida, USA. Three years later, he earned a Masters Degree in Film Directing of the prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, at New York University, NYC, USA. in 2002, he was chosen for Cannes Film Festival’s Cinefondation Residence for Directors, in Paris, France. Filmography It was here where he began writing the script for 2007 EAT, FOR THIS IS MY BODY. EAT FOR THIS IS MY BODY / MANGE, CECI EST MON CORPS (Haiti, France) in 2004, he directs – 105’ THE GOSPEL OF THE CREOLE PIG (L’EVANGILE DU COCHON 2004 CREOLE). A short-fi lm in 35mm, THE GOSPEL OF THE CREOLE PIG / produced by Les Films à un dollar, L’EVANGILE DU COCHON CRÉOLE (Haiti, France) 15’ which was presented in the Offi cial Selection in The Cannes 2004 Film festival 2004, and won Best LET THEM EAT YOYOS / Short Film at Locarno, Stockholm, QU’ON LEUR DONNE DES YOYOS Milan, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo, (Haiti, France) 16’ Turin and Tokyo Con Can Film 1998 40 DAYS (USA) 15’ Festival. 1996 MYTH OF SEUS (USA) 8’ Catherine Samie THE OLD WHITE WOMAN Catherine Samie is a member of The Académie Française, her recent plays include Shakespeare’s THE WINTER’S TALE in 2004, Marguerite Duras’ MADAME SAVANNAH BAY, Vasily Grossman’s THE LAST LETTER for which she received the Best Actor Prize in 2000. She also cast Sylvie Testud on Frederick Wiseman’s adaptation in 2002 Sylvie Testud’s recent fi lms include Olivier (selected in Cannes). Her recent fi lm include Dahan’s LA VIE EN ROSE, Robin Campillo’s LES REVENANTS, Alain Corneau’s WORDS IN BLUE, James Ivory’s THE DIVORCE, and FEAR AND TREMBLING for which and Olivier Marshall ‘s 36. she receives the César and the Prix She was appointed Arts and Letter Chevalier Lumière for best actress in 2004. She has worked with Chantal Akerman in TOMORROW and received the National Order of Merit. WE MOVE and THE CAPTIVE. She was awarded in 200 of the César for Best upcoming Actress in MURDEROUS MAID by Jean-Pierre Denis. One of her fi rst international high profi le role was in KARNAVAL by Thomas Vincent in Competition in Berlin 1999. Sylvie Testud works also for the theatre, being on tour within Stephan Zweig’s LA PITIE DANGEREUSE. As complete artist, she directs Élodie Bouchez in the theatre adaptation of her novel GAMINES. PATRICK THE ALBINO THE CHILDREN Hans Dacosta St-Val Hans Dacosta St Val is a university student and Jean-Noël Pierre musician that I had happened to meet in Port Au Prince, by total accident Jean-Noël Pierre is a gifted young and great fortune. He’s a student of one of Haiti’s most revered living student that I met in Port Au Prince classical piano virtuosos Micheline Landun Denis, and it was a pleasure and who played in my short fi lm, Claudy, Clifford, dickens, doddo, Fenal, Herriot, Jackson, Jimmy, Loubio, Platini, to discover that his repertoire also includes Haitian folk music, modern LET THEM EAT YO – YOS. Poupouch, Schliden, Sino, Wilkens These boys are a talented group of children living togther jazz – as well as a powerful, singular presence in front of the camera. Our His singular prescence is one of cenral at the Kroma Boy’s Residence in Jacmel Haïti where aside from their schoolwork they learn about complicity was instantaneous, and organic, before, and throughout the mysteries of EAT, FOR THIS IS MY BODY. audiovisual art and performance. creation of the fi lm – wordless, musical. CAST Madame SYLVIE TESTUD Madame’s mother CATHERINE SAMIE Patrick HANS DACOSTA SAINT-VAL The albino JEAN-NOËL PIERRE Children CHILDREN from the Kroma Foundation CREW Written and directed by MICHELANGE QUAY Image THOMAS OZOUX Art Direction VALÉRIE MASSADIAN Artistic advisor THIERRY CROMBET Editing JEAN-MARIE LENGELLÉ Sound NICOLAS LEROY Original soundtrack MALIK MEZZADRI / MADIOKO Sound mixer PHILIPPE HEISSLER Produced by TOM DERCOURT FOR CINÉMA DEFACTO in coproduction with LES FILMS À UN DOLLAR AND UNION FILMS (HAITI) With the participation of CNC, CENTRE IMAGES AND FONDATION GROUPAMA GAN.