Schedule:

1:00 PM - Souleymane’s Story
Introduction by producer Bruno Nahon
In the opening scenes of Boris Lojkine’s urgent third feature, a Guinean immigrant bicycles frantically from one food delivery pickup to another, the camera racing along just behind him, revealing a singular new view of Paris from the perspective of some of its most underappreciated workers. Over the two days that follow, Souleymane (played by non-professional actor Abou Sangaré in a riveting first performance) struggles to stay afloat while preparing for a crucial immigration asylum interview. Stylistically inspired in part by Cristian Mungiu’s 2007 Cannes winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Lojkine’s bracing, artful realism offers an equally affecting account of a migrant laborer’s experience finding himself caught up in the mechanisms of an uncaring and unforgiving society. Shooting on city streets with concealed cameras, Lojkine creates a simultaneously pulse-pounding and heartrending view of contemporary Parisian life.

3:15 PM - Ghost Trail
Q&A with Jonathan Millet
Two years after being released from Syrian jail, Hamid (Adam Bessa) is making ends meet as a construction worker in the French city of Strasbourg, where, haunted by the memory of his imprisonment, the young man searches tirelessly for the man who tortured him, determined to get his revenge—but what’s the real price of vengeance for the person seeking it? Inspired by true events, Jonathan Millet’s deeply researched thriller excavates the too-little-examined moral dilemmas and political negligence that traumatized migrants must confront amid the struggle to rebuild their lives and take control of their destinies at the margins of contemporary French society, inviting audiences to better empathize with France’s newest residents, and to better understand their place in the world—and our own. A Music Box Films release.

6:00 PM - DJ Mehdi: Made in France
Q&A with Thibaut de Longeville
The runtime includes a 15 minute intermission.

A key figure of French music in the last 30 years, DJ Mehdi bridged the worlds of hip-hop and electronic dance music in his too-brief 34 years, mirroring the French music industry’s journey from stagnation to unprecedented heights of international prominence and success. Directed by one of his closest friends, this remarkable six-episode documentary miniseries is a deep-dive treat for music fans and the uninitiated alike. Getting his start as a child prodigy who built his own sampler in early adolescence, Mehdi was launched to prominence as a DJ for the rap group Ideal J when he was just 13—an appropriately meteoric origin story for a generational talent. Bringing viewers along for a detailed celebration of his legacy and his enduring influence on musicians across genres, ranging from foundational hip-hop group 113 to mega dance stars Justice, DJ Mehdi: Made in France also tells a larger story about how rap broke out of the banlieue to reshape the national cultural landscape.