7:30PM

SUGAR CANE

ALLEY

Year: 1983

Country: Martinique

Language: French with English Subtitles

Run Time: 1hr 47min

Reception and post-screening conversation with filmmaker Euzhan Palcy.

1930: On a sugar cane plantation in Martinique lives José, a bright, mischievous 11-year-old and his grandmother, a tough, wise woman determined to save him from the hard life she has known. When José wins a scholarship, she is ready to sacrifice everything for his chance at an education and an escape from the fields.

About the Filmmaker:

Born in Martinique, Euzhan Palcy is a film director, writer, and producer who helped revolutionize Hollywood. Her first feature, Sugar Cane Alley (La Rue Cases-Nègres) put the French West Indies on cinema’s world stage. This critically acclaimed movie went on to win the prestigious César Award (the equivalent of the Academy Award in France) for Best First Feature, making Euzhan Palcy the first woman and the first black director to be granted this distinguished honor. Ms. Palcy is also the first black woman director to have a major Hollywood studio (MGM) produce one of her films, A Dry White Season. Furthermore, Ms. Palcy is the only woman filmmaker to direct an actor to an Oscar nomination with Marlon Brando being recognized for his performance as Ian McKenzie in A Dry White Season. Other work in the legendary filmmaker’s canon includes Simeon, Ruby Bridges and The Killing Yard.