Paris Noir documentary - Host A Screening

Julia Browne Announcement
Location
United States
Subject Fields
African American History / Studies, American History / Studies, Black History / Studies, Cultural History / Studies, French History / Studies

Blue Lion Films, Inc. is looking for educational and cultural institutions in the US and Canada who would like to host a screening of the 2016 documentary Paris Noir - African Americans in the City of Light. This one-hour documentary tells, through rare archival footage, commentary by academic subject experts, and a lively narration - the story of the African American and Diaspora experience in Paris from WWI through WWII and a conclusion in the 1960s.

The authors David and Joanne Burke of Blue Lion Films Inc and associate producer Julia Browne of Walking The Spirit Tours of Black Paris have recently launched a fundraising campaign to help finance travel to the screenings in venues across the U.S. and Canada. Julia Browne, creator of the first Black heritage tours in Paris, will be presenting the documentary at each event.

Our goal is to show the film at least twice in a geographic area. We welcome the opportunty to screen at university, college or grade school as well as museums, arts organizations, film festivals, community venues.

In Paris in 2016, we held events at the American University of Paris' James Baldwin Conference, Fondation des Etats-Unis, Columbia's Reid Hall in Paris in 2016.  The response was very enthusiastic and generated lively discussion afterwards. With the upcoming screenings we hope to reach audiences who may be studying related subjects and to open a conversation with those who are less familar with the experiences of the Black expatriates and their legacy in Europe.

If you would like to host an event (screening + Q&A), please email Julia Browne.

For the moment, we have scheduled 1-event screenings in Toronto  February 10, Washington DC April 20, New York April 1.

To see a trailer and learn more about of the documentary and its authors, please visit the africanamericansinparis website.

This is a brief description:

PARIS NOIR covers the period from the end of World  War I to the Fall of France in 1940.
As lively as the jazz beats of the day, the documentary follows the footsteps of the influencers:
Lt. James Reese Europe and his rollicking 396th Harlem Hellfighters marching band, Josephine Baker, Bricktop and Sidney Bechet. Writers Langston Hughes and Claude McKay are key figures in the film both for what they wrote about France and the connections they made with top writers from France’s Black African and Caribbean colonies. And completing the picture, are the achievements and challenges of artists in Montparnasse, the Art capital world.
While the 20s and 30s proved a wonderfully exuberant period for African Americans the film also examines the exploitation and new awareness of people of color from and in France’s vast overseas empire.

A short epilogue features post WWII expatriates Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Miles Davis, Sidney Bechet and others, and concludes with the situation of African Americans and Black French people in the France today.

Contact Information

Julia Browne

Contact Email
info@africanamericansinparis.com