Kouté vwa

Maxime had the opportunity to work on two film projects during the SIC program : Sasé-istwé and Kouté vwa (listen to the voices).

Sasé-istwé [searching for stories, searching for trouble] by Maxime Jean-Baptiste and Elli Vassalou Can we speak up and enact a non-colonial, polyvocal take on a story? In which ways does it resonate in contemporary times? Sasé Istwé is a film project and a polyphonic platform which dialogues with “L’affaire des Insurges de Cayenne”, a historical event that included the radicalization of the Guyanese people, an uprising, a long trial and finally the acquittal of the defendants. These events took place between Cayenne [French Guiana] and Nantes [France] in the interwar period. This incident has affected the history of France outre-mer territories and has up until the present been used by France to perpetuate an idealized image of republicanism based upon universalism. This project is searching for micro-stories, silenced behind the dominant narratives by using the reactivation of the trial’s archives in a creative dialogue with people of the Guyanese diaspora in Europe and in French Guiana. Maxime Jean-Baptiste is a filmmaker and Elli Vassalou is a multimedia artist, performer, researcher and activist. They are both interested in decolonial methodologies of narration and filmaking. Sasé-istwé is part of Sound Image Culture (SIC) platform for 2018-2019 and co-funded by Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds (VAF) and Bureau International Jeunesse (BIJ)

Kouté vwa – Synopsis
Melrick, a 13-year-old boy, spends his summer with his grandmother Nicole in Cayenne, French Guiana. His presence and his desire to learn how to play the drum bring back the specter of Lucas, Nicole’s son, also a drummer, who tragically died 11 years earlier. Faced with the grief that haunts his family and Lucas’s best friend’s desire for revenge, Melrick seeks his own path to forgiveness.

Director’s statement
In Kouté vwa, I tried to closely document the reality of the protagonists whilst creating a fiction that would be a reflection on the persistence of violence in a territory marked by the history of transatlantic slavery.