Country: France
Year: 2008
Duration: 70'
When Sidney Poitier arrived in New York from the Bahamas in 1944
he had no money. Twenty years later, in 1963, he was the first
Afro-American actor to receive an Oscar and to break the racial
stereotype of Hollywood. Poitier’s life shows that individual destiny
cannot be separated from the political context. His story is that of
the Afro-American community as it gains awareness and struggles
for its rights in different ways, from the Black Panthers to charismatic
figures like Martin Luther King and Malcom X.
“I realized that since Sidney Poitier played scrupulously honest, elitist
and asexual characters, he ended up participating, against his will,
in a form of exclusion from the social reality of black America.
How did he live those years of glory and solitude? What was
Hollywood really trying to do by ‘inventing’ the persona of Sidney
Poitier? These questions are at the basis of my desire to make this film.”
Biography
film director
Catherine Arnaud
Catherine Arnaud, graduated in literature and specialized in African and Oriental languages, she has been involved in journalism, cinema and the organization of cultural events. In 1989 she was the executive producer of the documentary Les Almées by Jocelyn Saab and, from 1990 until 1994, of the TV program Premières Vues. She produced several shorts films for the Arab World Institute of Paris in concomitance with the exposition “Egypt: one hundred years of Cinema.” She has often worked with the Biennial of Arab Cinema in Paris and in 2004 she was their artistic consultant. In 1984,
her interest in the Afro-Americans world resulted in the Meeting of Afro-American
cinema. In 1984 she and Catherine Ruelle founded the Racines Noires International Film Festival, which focuses on African cinema.
FILMOGRAFIA
Sidney Poitier, un outsider à Hollywood (TV, doc., 2008).
Cast
& Credits
regia/director Catherine Arnaud
fotografia/cinematography Paco Wiser, John Behrens
montaggio/film editing Dominique Pâris
suono/sound Hadrien Denis, David Lezynski
interpreti/cast
Harry Belafonte, Donald Bogle, Pearl Bowser, Kathleen Cleaver, Angela Davis, Danny Glover
produttore/producer Mark Edwards
produzione/production ARTE France, Les Films d’Ici
vendita all’estero/world sales Les Films d’Ici
fotografia/cinematography Paco Wiser, John Behrens
montaggio/film editing Dominique Pâris
suono/sound Hadrien Denis, David Lezynski
interpreti/cast
Harry Belafonte, Donald Bogle, Pearl Bowser, Kathleen Cleaver, Angela Davis, Danny Glover
produttore/producer Mark Edwards
produzione/production ARTE France, Les Films d’Ici
vendita all’estero/world sales Les Films d’Ici