UM Department of Modern Languages to Host Francophone Film Festival

By Madalyn Dudley

IMC Student

For the first time in six years, Ole Miss will partner with the French-American Culture Exchange to bring a French film festival to campus starting this week.

The Ole Miss French department called on four students to plan the festival: Winn Philpott, Kappy Eastman, Belen Deloera and Justice Obioha. They took it into their own hands to seek a FACE Foundation grant that would allow the school’s Modern Languages department to buy the screening rights to six films that cannot be viewed anywhere else in the United States.

The festival opens Friday, March 25, and runs through April 19, with all movies to be shown for free in Lamar Hall.

Philpott says, “It’s a really great free opportunity for other people on campus and in the Lafayette community to come and engage in a pretty unique experience.”

This film festival has been a long time in the making for both the festival committee as well as its advisers, Sara Wellmen and Anne Quinney, both of whom have doctorates and are French professors.

The FACE Foundation gave the professors the opportunity to host the first festival at Ole Miss in 2016.

Only about 30 schools around the country receive the FACE grants each year, and the organization hopes to allocate funds around many regions to slowly integrate French culture in all parts of the country.

Ole Miss has applied for the grant every year since 2016, but has won only twice, thus making this event what Wellman called a “once-in-a-college-career experience” for many students on campus.

In designating a student committee to put on the event, Wellman and Quinney hoped to inspire other students on campus with their passion for French culture.

Wellman says, “I feel like since they have been involved, I think that we are going to have more student interest this year.”

Coincidentally, the student-driven festival is themed “The Voices of Youth” (“Les Voix de la Jeunesse”). The student board has selected six unique films that encompass a theme of strong, determined youth.

These movies will be shown in Lamar Hall at 6:30 p.m. on each screening date. The schedule is as follows:

• UN FILM DRAMATIQUE – (A Dramatic Film) Friday, March 25 – Lamar 131
• PETITE FILLE (Little Girl) Tuesday, March 29 – Lamar 326
• LA NUIT DES ROIS (Night of the Kings) Friday, April 1 – Lamar 131
• CONTE D’ÉTÉ (A Tale of Summer) Wednesday, April 6- Lamar 131
• LA PERMISSION  (The Story of a Three-Day Pass) Friday, April 8- Lamar 131
• MANDIBULES (Mandibles) Tuesday, April 19- Lamar 326

For more information, contact Wellman at slwellma@olemiss.edu or visit https://modernlanguages.olemiss.edu/frenchfilms/.