Sunday May 12th 2019, Sugar Cane Alley / La Rue Cases-Nègres (Euzhan Palcy, 1983). 103 minutes | French | English subtitles | Doors: 20:00, Film 20:30
Sugar Cane Alley is set in Martinique and directed by Euzhan Palcy who was born there. Casting back to the 1930s, based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Joseph Zobel.
Jose attends school at the insistence of his grandmother, who does not want him to end up working in the fields, the probable fate of most of his class. Jose is successful academically, but for a poor black boy the course of his life is never going to be straight-forword in a country where blacks working sugarcane fields were still treated harshly by their white employers.
It is the first film by Euzhan Palcy, made in 1983, on a limited budget, it went on to win 17 awards, including getting Sundance support. This launched her carrier so that her next film Dry White Season (1989) she was the first black woman to direct a film for a major studio. We will be showing Dry White Season in ‘The Budapest’ at the end of the month. It’s a more graphic, and gritty, film. Where Sugar Cane Alley maintains the perspective of a young black boy, Dry White Season opts for the white slave owner who comes to the realization of the situation.
Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to play a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net
