Even though all cultural and artistic events have been cancelled for more than a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the French Embassy and Alliance Française in Cuba wanted to promote the work and creations of the artists they have been working with for a long time by programming them on the small screen, in a country where an internet connection remains very expensive and is not broadly available. 

In partnership with the ICRT (Cuban Television and Radio Institute), a broad cultural and artistic programme will be fully broadcast on Cuban television: dance and circus performances, theatre plays, opera, concerts, film and documentaries.

This unprecedented televised format will also allow French knowledge to be showcased in many areas thanks to a selection of cultural, historic, gastronomic or scientific documentaries... The Cubans will see France as they have never seen it yet... on television.

“Radhouane El Meddeb: ninguna forma como forma, ningún límite como límite”, a documentary by Noel Bonilla-Chongo and Reynier Cepero.

The documentary looks back at the artistic career and choreographic creations of Radhouane El Meddeb, and particularly the creation that is currently being prepared “REQUIEM (Siá Kará)” with Susana Pous, dancer and choreographer, director of the Mi Compañía company.

Radhouane El Meddeb has been in Havana since the beginning of May, and continues preparing “REQUIEM (Sià Karà)”, a France/Cuba/Italy coproduction that will be performed in summer 2021 in Italy at the Bolzano Danza festival. This original composition by Matteo Franceschini, inspired by the Requiem Mass in D minor (KV. 626) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, will be performed by the Haydn di Bolzano e Trento Orchestra, under the musical direction of Jean Deroyer. The piece will also be presented in November at the Hivernales d’Avignon and in December at the Grand Théâtre Alicia Alonso in Havana. 

“Le temps change” (Times Change) (Ad Livintum), a video-performance created and produced by Pascal Perron, director of the Alliance Française in Santiago de Cuba and Yanoski Suárez, dancer and choreographer, director of the Ad Livintum company in Santiago de Cuba.

Yanoski Suárez was awarded a training scholarship at the Centre National de la Danse in 2011, and has trained with the choreographer Alwin Nicolais in particular. He has been invited to several international festivals, including the Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales festival of contemporary dance in Seine-Saint-Denis in 2008.

For this anniversary, the institution is showcased and proposes a special issue, “Les Lettres françaises : Cuba-Francia” (Letters between Cuba and France). This multimedia issue brings together photos and shows celebrating the cultural wealth and friendship links between the two countries.

Programme : 

• « Radhouane El Meddeb: ninguna forma como forma, ningún límite como límite », documentary by Noel Bonilla-Chongo and Reynier Cepero, 2021, (27’)
• « Tout doit disparaître », by Philippe Découflé, Théâtre National de Chaillot, Paris, 2019, (90’) 
• « Les 25 ans du Festival Suresnes Cité Danse », choreography by Farid Berki, 2017, (73’)
• « Christine and the Queens », Festival Les Vieilles Charrues, Carhaix-Plouguer, 2019, (71’)
• « La Femme », Ground Control, Paris, 2021, (28’) 
• « Phoenix live à Bercy », AccorHotels Arena, Paris, 2017, (76’)
• « Catherine Ringer chante les Rita Mitsouko », Festival We Love Green, Paris, 2020, (54’) 
• « 40e Festival international de piano de La Roque d'Anthéron », with Nelson Goerner, Quatuor Modigliani, Yann Dubost, Beatrice Rana, Olivier Charlier, Anna Göckel, Marc Coppey, Anne Queffélec, 2020, (179’)
• « Carmen », (Opéra de Rennes) 2017, (158’)

Three films :  

• « Sage-femme », comedy-drama by Martin Provost, 2018, (117’)
• « La Visite – Le Musée du Louvre », a film by Denis Darzacq, 2015, (15’)
• « Le temps change (Ad Livintum) », a performance by Yanoski Suárez et Pascal Perron, 2021, (4’54) 

For the young audience :

• « Cendrillon », by Joël Pommerat, 2017, (89’)
• « Pinocchio », by Joël Pommerat, 2017, (75’)

Documentaries :

Art

• “Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, le dernier romantique”, by Marie Brunet-Debaines, 2016, (52’)
•  « Divino Inferno (Et Rodin créa la Porte de l'Enfer) », by Bruno Aveillan , 2017, (52’)
•  « Une baignade à Asnières » (1884) de Georges Seurat », by Carlos Franklin, collection « Les petits secrets des grands tableaux », 2014, (26’)

Environment

• “Les Nouveaux Guerriers des champs”, by Claude-Julie Parisot, 2016, (52’)

Gastronomy

• “Les maîtres des saveurs 3/10 : Episode Lyonnais”, by Sandrine Bagarry, Eric Elléna, Valérie Deschènes, Clara Ott, Luc Reder, 2019, (52’)

History 

•  « Quand l’histoire fait dates : - 18 000, la grotte de Lascaux », by Jean-Christophe Ribot, 2020, (26’)

Heritage/science

• “Versailles, mégastructure souterraine”, by Cyrille Massey, 2020, (52’)
• « Canal du midi, un patrimoine révélé, Un chef d'oeuvre d'art et de technologie », by Emmanuel Amara, 2019, (52’)
• « Ponts de Paris : un patrimoine révélé », by Thierry Hornet, 2020, (52’)

Anna, Jo-Anne, Liam and Paul, four professional actors from the Mind the Gap theatre company (Bradford, United Kingdom), discover the Louvre Museum alone and for the first time.

“These confrontations (…) this stance, both literally and figuratively, are to be interpreted like a manifesto. The confirmation that disabled people are contributors to our society in their own right”. Denis Darzacq.

Writer/Director: Denis Darzacq /Sound: Pierre Bompy/ Editing: Clémentine March/ Production/distribution: SaNoSi

Read the portrait of Denis Darzacq