Belle et Sébastien Sunday February 14 • 3pm Sunday February 21 • 1pm Nicolas Vanier, Blu-ray, 104 min, France, 2013 (French) Belleetsebastien It’s 1943 and Germans are hunting down Resistance fighters in the French Alps where Sébastien, an orphan, lives with his grandfather, a shepherd, and his aunt, a baker. When sheep are found slaughtered, his grandfather and the local villagers believe that a stray dog is responsible. Sébastien finds the dog, names it Belle and they become inseparable. Will Sébastien save Belle and foil the Nazis’ efforts? Co-sponsored by the Master of Arts in Language, Literature and Translation Program (MALLT) and the Alliance Française of Milwaukee. Presented as part of the Tournées Film Festival

Port-au-Prince, dimanche 4 janvier (Port-au-Prince, Sunday, January 4th) Sunday February 14 • 7 pm Monday February 15 • 7pm François Mathouret, DVD, 80 min, Haiti/France, 2014 (French/Kreyol) portauprince This adaptation of Haitian novelist Lyonel Trouillot’s 2004 Bicentenaire was filmed in post-earthquake Port-au-Prince and Guadeloupe. After months of student and mass protests against the “Prophet” President Aristide, two brothers sharing a shack above the city find themselves in diametrically opposed political camps. Lucien, a student in philosophy, believes that protest demonstrations can bring about democracy, and Little Joe, a recruit of the Chimera militia, follows their gang tactics to disrupt the students’ march to the presidential palace. Co-sponsored by Union Sociocultural Programming, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) and the Department of Africology.

Verdun: Visions d’histoire Tuesday February 16 • 7pm Léon Poirier, DVD, 151 min, France, 1927 (Silent) Verdun visions This screening of Poirier’s epic silent film coincides almost exactly with the hundredth anniversary of the start of this horrendous World War I battle. Filming began on the tenth anniversary of Verdun using many war veterans as actors (including Marshall Pétain who plays himself!) and combining documentary footage with meticulously staged reenactments. Its pacifist message is delivered through a realistic chronicling of the terrible human toll taken by ten long months of fighting. With musical accompaniment by Renato Umali. Co-sponsored by the Alliance Française of Milwaukee.

Ady Gasy/ The Malagasy way Wednesday February 17 • 7pm Lova Nantenaina, Blu-ray, 84 min, Madagascar, 2014 (Malagasy, French) poster-ady-gasy-the-malagasy-way-s-2 This vibrant documentary offers a bittersweet satirical critique of global over-production and consumption. In Madagascar, where people are defying the country’s economic and environmental crisis with great ingenuity, a Malagasy narrator sets out to tell their stories. Just as they waste nothing, transforming tires into shoes or cans into lamps, toys and instruments, he finds himself rewording the tools of his oral traditions as he undertakes his journey. Shown in conjunction with Union Cinema’s Share the Earth Environmental Film Series.