19th Annual
Louisiana's Reel Festival
Festival starts in
Song of a Seer / Canada, France, Haiti / U.S. Premiere
FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
According to Haitian poet, art critic and actor Dominique Batraville, his bedroom-office-library, while a only a matchbox, contains entire worlds. There he sings, recites poems and alludes to the struggles and triumphs of his life as a writer and actor.
French with English subtitles.
Director biography:
Aïda Maigre-Touchet holds a Masters degree in Film, having studied in Paris and Montreal. Her first film earned a special jury prize for Best Emerging Filmmaker (RVCQ, Montreal) and had a theatre release after being the opening film at two festivals. Her second documentary, the short film ELEGY FOR PORT-AU-PRINCE (2011), received international recognition. SONG OF A SEER (2018) is her debut feature.
Review of Film:
Charlotte Garson: This film sidesteps all the pitfalls of the artist’s portrait by creeping into the intimacy of the room where he reads, sleeps, writes or listens to the radio. “The world is not a church”: his first utterance can also be understood as applying to the filmmaker’s gaze on the man she is filming – admired but not held sacred. French slips into Creole when a young neighbour comes to help him find a book or pack his bags. The small room with its clutter of books and notebooks soon comes across as an extension of the author’s spirit as he thinks aloud, mixing snatches of poetry, post-siesta musings, biographemes (“My elder brother didn’t like me reading.”) and memories of the Duvalier dictatorship. Above all, Aïda Maigre-Touchet manages to bring to life a powerful, off-screen world composed of secret compartments: Port-au-Prince life murmuring all around, and foreign lands, hinted at by the cell phone, the suitcase to be packed, the invitations to the Académie française and Cannes. Batraville’s chubby yet lightweight body creates the link between these two poles: the idiosyncrasy of the bookcase-bed and the globe-trotter’s internationalism.
French with English subtitles.
Director biography:
Aïda Maigre-Touchet holds a Masters degree in Film, having studied in Paris and Montreal. Her first film earned a special jury prize for Best Emerging Filmmaker (RVCQ, Montreal) and had a theatre release after being the opening film at two festivals. Her second documentary, the short film ELEGY FOR PORT-AU-PRINCE (2011), received international recognition. SONG OF A SEER (2018) is her debut feature.
Review of Film:
Charlotte Garson: This film sidesteps all the pitfalls of the artist’s portrait by creeping into the intimacy of the room where he reads, sleeps, writes or listens to the radio. “The world is not a church”: his first utterance can also be understood as applying to the filmmaker’s gaze on the man she is filming – admired but not held sacred. French slips into Creole when a young neighbour comes to help him find a book or pack his bags. The small room with its clutter of books and notebooks soon comes across as an extension of the author’s spirit as he thinks aloud, mixing snatches of poetry, post-siesta musings, biographemes (“My elder brother didn’t like me reading.”) and memories of the Duvalier dictatorship. Above all, Aïda Maigre-Touchet manages to bring to life a powerful, off-screen world composed of secret compartments: Port-au-Prince life murmuring all around, and foreign lands, hinted at by the cell phone, the suitcase to be packed, the invitations to the Académie française and Cannes. Batraville’s chubby yet lightweight body creates the link between these two poles: the idiosyncrasy of the bookcase-bed and the globe-trotter’s internationalism.
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