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MONOLOGUES FOR A REVOLUTION

Films by Julius-Amédée Laou

Followed by a talk with Julius-Amédée Laou and Steve Macfarlane

Talk in French with live translation

Solitaire à Micro Ouvert (Open Mic Solitaire)
Julius-Amédée Laou, France, 1983, 18 min

Mélodie de brumes à Paris (Mist Melodies in Paris)
Julius-Amédée Laou, France, 1985, 22 min

New restoration (2023) under the supervision of Julius-Amédée Laou from the original 35mm negative at LTC Patrimoine (Paris) in partnership with Jesse Pires (Lightbox, Philadelphia) and film programmer Steve Macfarlane.

In his first two short films, filmmaker Julius-Amédée Laou stages angry cries and accusatory monologues. In Open Mic Solitaire, a young black Parisian is murdered. His brother, mad with grief, takes the presenters of a free Caribbean radio station hostage; through the medium of radio, he hopes to freely express himself and talk directly to his community.  Produced by GREC (Group for Cinematographic Research and Essays), the film received an award at the Venice Film Festival. In Mélodie de brumes à Paris Richard, a West Indian man in his forties, remembers "his war" in Algeria. More than twenty years later, he still carries internal trauma.

Special thanks to Lysa Hochroth, Leika Narcisse, Ntone Edjabe (Chimurenga), Oona Mosna (Media City Film Festival) and Marie-Ann Campos (GREC).

Julius-Amédée Laou is a filmmaker, playwright, theater director and writer. Born in Paris into a Martinican family, he directed two feature films La Vieille Quimboiseuse et le Majordome (1987) with Robert Liensol and Jenny Alpha, Zouk, Marriage and Ouélélé! (2004) after his two short films. Laou has authored more than thirty stage plays, including Ne M’Appelez Jamais Nègre! (1982) and Folie Ordinaire d’une Fille de Cham (1984). The latter was adapted into a film by Jean Rouch.

Steve Macfarlane is a filmmaker, programmer and writer based in Ridgewood, NY. He is an active volunteer at Spectacle, where he has curated screenings for over ten years, and has also presented movies at MoMA, the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture (NMAAHC), Anthology Film Archives and other institutions.