The Caribbean Film Series is kicking off 2023 with TWO feature films and a weekend of great Caribbean cinema
Family Histories Are Explored As Homelands Come to Life in
CETTE MAISON
and
IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY
February 10th and 11th at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
CETTE MAISON
Friday, Feb. 10 at 7 PM
Written and Directed by Miryam Charles
with Schelby Jean-Baptiste, Florence Blain Mbaye, Eve Duranceau, Mireille Metéllus, Matthew Rankin, Yardly Kavanagh, Nadine Jean, Tracy Marcellin
Runtime: 75 minutes
French, Haitian Creole with English Subtitles
This haunting, evocative work from Montréal-based filmmaker Miryam Charles weaves together her family’s personal tragedy with the story of their immigration from Haiti, offering a meditation on loss, grief, and the futures that will never be. The film takes as its center point the true story of Charles’ teenage cousin Tessa, who was found hanging in her Connecticut bedroom in an assumed suicide until the autopsy revealed otherwise. Ten years later, Charles offers a poetic and visually stunning exploration of events real and imagined surrounding the unsolved crime, exploring notions of home and displacement, belonging and violence.
preceded by
IF I COULD NAME YOU MYSELF (I WOULD HOLD YOU FOREVER)
Directed by Hope Strickland
2021/UK/8’
Wake and soil, skin and voice: Hope Strickland’s film locates a legacy of slavery and colonial exploitation beneath the archive’s official chronicle, in the deep historical memory of the body, full of quiet resistance and moments of deep, loving rebellion.
IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY
(LO QUE SE HEREDA)
Saturday, Feb. 11 at 4:30 PM
Directed by Victoria Linares Villegas
2022 | Dominican Republic | 84 min
Spanish with English subtitles
Through a series of re-enactments starring her family and the filmmaker, filmmaker Victoria Linares traces the forgotten life of her cousin, queer filmmaker and political activist Oscar Torres, blurring the lines between her reality and his.
preceded by
QUEENIE
Directed by Cai Thomas
2020/USA/19’28”
Queenie is a 73-years-young Black lesbian that’s called the Marcy Projects home since 1988, but she’s ready to move to a building that better meets her mobility, safety, and social needs as an aging elder. She applies to Stonewall Residences, NYC’s first affordable housing for LGBT elders, hopeful that she’ll be able to live out her final days in a new place she can call home.
Talkbacks will follow each film, and two short films (to be announced) will precede both “Cette Maison” and “It Runs in the Family”, all taking place at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217.
Now in its eighth year, the Caribbean Film Series is an ongoing program of The Luminal Theater, Third Horizon, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.