French Language Festival!
Time to Slam!

Uppercut Company

with Damien Noury and Antoine Faure

Uppercut Company operates at the point where slam and theatre come together, examining the rapport with the public through its use of a wide range of expressive tools. The company’s shows mingle slam or sung matches that combine stories, poetry and electronic music. Self-mockery and variations in intensity are the hallmarks of the charm of these poets.

“‘Then came the Enunciation!,” proclaim Damien Noury and Antoine Faure, called Tô, in unison. Then came slam – this oral poetry that is sometimes spoken, sometimes sung but always rhythmical. And then came along these two Uppercut word percussionists who harvest language and bundle rhymes. In a nutshell: they came, they discoursed and they conquered the public…These two poets are wild about words. “I wear language the way I would rub a flint stone or poke embers,” says Tô, hammering out his words …

-Ouest France – September 2006

Click here to hear the recording.

Regard d’Une

Organized by Oasis Centre des Femmes as part of International Women’s Week

Twenty-five portraits of francophone women living in Toronto, photographed by freelance photographers Julie Rémy and Delphine Gingoux. A photographic exhibition offered by Oasis Centre des femmes as part of the celebration of International Women’s Week.

Nine francophone women decided to take part in this project aimed at paying tribute to women, inspiring other women and combating all forms of violence and abuse against women.

For information, please email Carole Nkoa, Communications Coordinator, Oasis Centre des Femmes, at carolen@oasisfemmes.org or call her at 416-591-6565, ext. 233.

Special lecture by Dominique Charpin, Director of Studies at the EPHE, Sorbonne (Historical and Philological Studies Section)

The Assyrian World

A professor of Mesopotamian history at the Sorbonne (École Pratique des Hautes Études) and editor of the Revue d'Assyriologie, Dominique Charpin is especially known as the author of the acclaimed work Hammu-rabi de Babylone (PUF, 2003).

A poetic and musical performance,

Poésie sonore
[Sound Poetry]

By Pierre Guéry, a poet, writer and performer from Marseille and organizer of Le Printemps des Poètes, with Emilyn Stam, violinist.

Pierre Guéry is the author of “Alien-Nation” (Maelström, 2006) and has a degree in literature and in language teaching. He spent some ten years in France and abroad as a teacher, translator and critic for various journals.

He was invited in 2005 to the Teranova Festival Nomade de Performances Poétiques in Lorraine, and in May 2005 he was invited to be writer-in-residence in Montevideo. Currently, he works at the Centre des Écritures Contemporaines in Marseille but is also active elsewhere in France, Belgium and Italy. These activities include a sound creation for Music Poéstreet, i.e., an urban poem adapted for Arte Radio; Zik-Lang’Mix, a performance and an album with guitarist Jean-Marc Montera (Groupe de Recherche en Improvisation Musicale); a staging of Martin Melkonian’s Conversations au bord du vide [conversations on the edge of the void]; and works that had languished in drawers (short stories, narratives) or works in progress (novels, theatre).

As part of the monthly lectures of the Société d’Histoire de Toronto,

The Dionne Quintuplets

By Paul-François Sylvestre, author and historian

It’s the seventy-fifth anniversary of the birth of the Dionne quintuplets. Their chances of survival were one in 57 million!

On May 28, 1934, Elzire Dionne gave birth in Corbeil (northern Ontario) to five daughters: Émilie, Marie, Cécile, Annette and Yvonne.

News about the birth and survival of these quintuplets spread like wildfire and they became stars overnight. The girls were made wards of the state, which built an observatory/nursery called Quintland where they lived separated from their family for eight years.

The Dionne girls attracted 3,000 visitors a day and generated substantial revenues for the province amounting to $500 million. They received only a very small amount of this huge fortune, however. In 1998, following the death of two of the five, the Ontario government offered them $4 million as compensation for the ways in which the Dionne quintuplets had been exploited

For information, please call 416-922-2014, ext. 35, or email info@sht.ca.

As part of the “Séminaires d’Histoire de France” series,

"Jacques Soustelle's Mexico"

By Professor James Cullingham, York University

Jacques Soustelle fell in love with Mexico on his first visit to that country in 1932. In his capacity as an ethnologist, Resistance fighter, politician and even Governor General of Algeria, Soustelle has given a great deal of thought to, and written extensively about, this beautiful country.

Once a month, the Séminaires d’Histoire de France invites professors and historians from universities in the GTA to the Spadina campus of the Alliance Française of Toronto.

The Alliance Française presents as part of its cabaret-chanson series,

Quand la chanson fait son cinéma
[Much Ado about Song]

with Kaili Kinnon, Tom Howell and Beth Washburn

We’ve all experienced those times in a darkened movie house, either alone or with someone who thrills to the same emotions, when suddenly the miracle happens – thanks to the mysterious alchemy of sounds and images, voices and faces. And we’re smitten, in love and marked for life by a movie tune or a melody that evokes Audrey Hepburn or Catherine Deneuve, Giulietta Massina or Jeanne Moreau.

It really takes almost nothing: three little musical notes that tease you, and that voice that bewitched you straight away. You see, I haven’t forgotten the song you were singing to me…

And why would anyone want to forget? On the contrary, the Alliance Française of Toronto invites you to travel to other places, to go down memory lane where movie and music fans walk hand in hand. This is what Quand la chanson fait son cinéma is all about.

This fifth cabaret-chanson of the season will be an opportunity to discover Kaili Kinnon, an outstanding young Toronto performer, and to rediscover the learned hands of pianist and violinist Tom Howell (of the Toronto music group Les Singes Bleus). As a counterpoint, the mellow cornet sounds of Beth Washburn (also a member of this “simian” music group) will draw maximum emotion from a minimum of notes.

Presented as a warm-up to Cinéfranco for the first time on March 27, Quand la chanson fait son cinéma will revisit our shared memories (Jules et Jim, French Cancan, Un homme et une femme) and dust off some of those forgotten tunes that deserve to be on the lips of everyone who loves movies and light-hearted songs – just like a stolen kiss!

Artistic Director: Dominique Denis

As part of Universciné:

Lola

By Jacques Demy
With Anouk Aimée, Mark Michel, Alan Scott, Jacques Harden and Margot Lion
An 85-minute black and white fiction film shot in 1960
Images and sounds restored in 2000

A cabaret dancer in Nantes, courted by a childhood friend who was loved by another woman, meets up again with the father of a child she had long ago. Now a very rich man, he marries her. This was Jacques Demy’s first film; it was a hit and has retained its poetic atmosphere.

“I really enjoyed making something about fidelity – fidelity to a memory – and blending in my own memories of Nantes.” Jacques Demy

Cinéfranco presents two short fils at Innis Town Hall:

Une leçon particulière
[A Private Lesson]

By Raphaël Chevènement (2007, In French)
With Cécile Ducrocq et Raphaël Goldman
Nominated for a 2009 César Award

Cyril is 17 years old and is taking private French lessons with Éva, who is 10 years older. They’re studying a love poem by Victor Hugo.

L’Occitanienne

By Jean Périssé (2005, In French)
With Bernard Le Coq, Valentine Teisseire et Roger Souza.

On a stormy night, in a thermal baths hotel (Hautes Pyrénées), Chateaubriand, 60 years old, and Léontine de Villeneuve, 25, are fighting an outrageously romantic love battle as Raoul, the hotel owner, is mischievously spying on them.

“The linguistic elegance of the finely chiselled dialogue is fired up by Bernard Le Coq, who is magnificent as a seducer who is somewhat overwhelmed by his adventure; Valentine Teisseire, who is vibrantly enthusiastic; and Roger Souza, who performs with a delicious mixture of naiveté and wisdom. Beautiful, intelligent and subtle.“ (ladepeche.fr)

Le Théâtre français de Toronto presents:

Une maison face au Nord
[A North-Facing House]

By Jean-Rock Gaudreault

With Guy Mignault, Louisette Dussault, Marcelo Arroyo, Sara Simard and others.

FLUCTUATING BETWEEN A FAMILY DRAMA AND A COMEDY OF MANNERS, Une maison face au nord addresses such serious issues as the rural exodus, immigrant integration and the generational conflict, all of which is toned down a bit thanks to the humour with which the author has spiced up his text.

For ticket prices and other information, please visit the TFT’s official web site

The Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean Governor General of Canada and Mr. Jean-Daniel Lafond are pleased to invite you to an Art Matters public forum exploring the following theme:

Play on!
How does music bring us together?

This forum is organized on the occasion of the announcement of the laureates of the 2009 Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards.

For more information, visit www.music.gg.ca

LE PETIT CHAPERON ROUGE an inherited narrative

An inter-disciplinary art exhibition by Isabelle Mignault

Her steps break the surface of the snow as she walks. The forest is quiet and inviting, yet her breath is shallow: she has been told that a wolf lurks nearby. What will become of her if they meet?

As visitors enter the gallery space, they will be incited to engage with the theatricality of the work. With this inter-disciplinary visual installation -- one of a series of explorations on this theme -- I hope to allow others to feel my process of self-identification as a means to connect with their own.

To end La Semaine de la Francophonie on a high note, the Salaam Group and the singer Habib Koite perform for you

A festive and electrical evening with the Salaam Group from Morocco and singer Habib Koite from Mali. Enjoy a relaxed atmosphere with music from around the world and an opportunity to celebrate the diversity of Toronto’s francophone community.

For further information, please call Sophie Bernier at 416-203-1220, ext. 229.

FESTIVAL CINÉFRANCO 2009

March 27 to April 5

For additional programming details and to purchase tickets, please call 416-967-1528 or visit: http://www.cinefranco.com/

The films will be shown at the Royal Cinéma: 608 College Street (4 intersections west of Bathurst).

Special rate of $8.50 (regularly $10) for Alliance Française students and members when they show their membership cards

March Break is more fun in French!

Workshops for children of all ages

Animation fascination: Enter the extraordinary world of movie animation! March 17: AFT North York, March 18: AFT Mississauga. Age: 10-15 years old.

Alice in the 3RD dimension: March 17: AFT Mississauga, March 19: AFT North York. Age: 6-10 years old.

Créativité et liberté: March 18: AFT North York, March 19: AFT Mississauga. Age: 5-11 years old.

All workshops are in French! Children at all levels are welcome. All day workshops: 9:00am to 4:00pm.