For the third year in a row, the French and Francophone Film Festival CinéCola brought cultural diversity to Columbia through the cinematic arts throughout the past month.
As a collaborative effort between USC and Columbia College’s French programs along with support from the community, the festival was able to screen four French-speaking films to benefit French students, as well as Francophone individuals in the area.
CinéCola aims to screen recent films within the “Franco-film” world, kicking off this year’s festival with the Canadian flick “Gabrielle,” followed by a reception and Q&A hosted by the lead actor Alexandre Landry. With the four screenings this year, every film was introduced with a discussion to follow.
Daniela Di Cecco and Jeff Persels from USC joined Coco Mann and Christine Hait of Columbia College to bring this festival to life. As CinéCola’s third year, it’s been its biggest yet — in fact, this year was the first time the festival was able to go independent without relying on grants to pay for screenings.
USC and Columbia College staff run the festival, but CinéCola is for more than students, even though they're primary beneficiaries. With support from the French Alliance of Columbia, or “Alliance Française de Columbia,” and the Columbia Museum of Art, this festival has served as an educational outreach beneficial to anyone that is interested.
Coco Mann, director of the French studies program at Columbia College, believes festivals such as CinéCola play an important role in expressing the importance of French culture. They show that knowing French can serve as a marketable trait, she said, while it is spoken intercontinentally.
“[French students] are gaining awareness of the language itself,” she said. “The community itself, being surrounded by French speakers, has really influenced their motivation to learn the language.”
All screenings are open to the public, encouraging the community to get a taste of the culture of Francophone film. Although French-speakers make up plenty of the audience, the films are spoken in French with English subtitles, making sure to include everyone, regardless of the level of French they may know.
“I personally enjoy seeing the Francophone community come together, because we have such a diverse Francophone population here in Columbia,” Mann said. “If we didn’t have these kinds of events, you wouldn’t even know it.”
As a work in progress for years now and years to come, Jeff Persels, head of USC’s French program, was pleased to see all the hard work pay off. Aside from the community support, the festival has had a reputable turn out.
“The response has been extraordinary,” he said. “We always pack the house.”
USC’s International Education Week, in collaboration with International programs, sponsored the final film of this year’s CinéCola, Belgium-French film “Ernest and Celestine” at Columbia Museum of Art.
Because the Francophone community isn't limited to a single country, the festival takes the diversity of their films as a priority. This year the festival was able to bring Chadian film “GriGris” to the screen as an effort to touch on the French-speaking African countries.
“We really push to make sure that we have films that are representative as possible of the possibilities of the French-speaking world,” Persels said. “[The films] open up to the world, which is our whole point.”