Limestone College to showcase French film festival Oct. 23 - Nov 2

An $1,800 grant will result in a French film festival coming to Limestone College for five nights of cinema entertainment with an international flavor.

Limestone will showcase The Tournées Festival film festival Oct. 23-Nov. 2 with films from France, Belgium, Morocco and another film set in Senegal. Each film will be shown at 7 p.m. in the banquet room at Stephenson Dining Hall on the Limestone College campus. There is no charge for admission.

English professor Bonnie Sarnoff successfully applied for a grant from the French American Cultural Exchange (FACE) this summer that will cover most of the festival expenses. FACE is a nonprofit organization that provides grants to support fine arts.

"I took it on as a personal project because I was interested in film during my French graduate studies as a speciality. My husband and I sometimes go to Charlotte to see films because there's not much opportunity to see independent, foreign or documentary films in the Upstate," Sarnoff said. "Therefore, this grant will really benefit the entire Gaffney population since you can't find films from these countries on screens anywhere in this area. Also, a lot of these films haven't been released in the U.S., so it truly is a very exciting opportunity for everyone who can come to the screenings."

The Tournées Festival will open Oct. 23 with the comedy "Comme Une Image" (Look at Me) set in the Paris social world. The college will present the Belgian film "L'Enfant" (The Child), winner of the Golden Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005.

The festival will continue Oct. 30 with "Le Grand Voyage" (Grand Voyage.) about a father and son's road trip from France to Mecca. The Moroccan film is one of five to ever be shot on location during the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.

The French film "Les Petits Fils" (Grandsons) will be shown Nov. 1. The festival will end with the Nov. 2 showing of "Moolade," a film about a woman's efforts to protect four young girls from female circumcision in a Senegal village.

All foreign language films are shown with English subtitles. The only R-rated film is "L'Enfant."

"My colleagues and I chose the five films from a list of nearly 50 films. I am pleased with the selection that we chose. We came up with films that are very applicable to current events," Sarnoff said. "In fact, I think we have a festival that is centered on the idea of an 'Other' and how people deal with an 'other' in their lives. That 'other' can be someone of a different religion, a different sexual orientation, a different lifestyle or a different country."