L’île veilleuse (The Vigilant Island)
A compelling portrait of author and anti-colonial activist Aimé Césaire by fellow Martinican Euzhan Palcy.
Film/Video Theater
(Euzhan Palcy, 1994)
L’île veilleuse (The Vigilant Island) is the first part of the three-part documentary series Aimé Césaire: A Voice for History. Euzhan Palcy had a close relationship with Césaire, who acted as her mentor. The first installment introduces audiences to the celebrated Martinican author and anti-colonial activist who coined the term “négritude,” a cultural and political movement that emerged among Black intellectuals in the 1930s and 40s. Palcy follows her mentor as they tour their home country of Martinique, where Césaire tried to balance his life as a poet with his postwar role as his country’s representative to the French National Assembly. (55 mins., digital video)
Admission is first come, first served.
Free for all audiences with ticket.
“With my camera I don’t shoot, I heal. I try to repair the wounds of history. One film at a time.”