The Guianese filmmaker Maxime Jean-Baptiste has directed a series of short films that draw upon archival material to discuss his nation’s tangled relationship with France. His feature debut, Kouté Vwa, is set to make its New York premiere at Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art’s New Directors/New Films, after earning a Special Jury Prize at last year’s Locarno Film Festival. To coincide with its NY premiere, we’re pleased to present the filmmaker’s previous short Moune Ô.

Moune Ô was made using footage from a television report on the premiere of Alain Maline’s Jean Galmot Aventurier (1990), a biopic about the eponymous French gold prospector and subject of critique in Jean-Baptiste’s previous short Nou Voix (2018). Pausing, rewinding, and commenting on the footage from the report, Jean-Baptiste emphasizes how the pageantry on view did not correspond with the lived-experience of Guianese immigrants in Paris.

“It is violent because a population is put at the service of entertainment. Black bodies are marching on the Champs Elysées, surrounded by happy white bodies. It’s the black body market, where we sell a dance, a smile, our skin.” MAXIME JEAN-BAPTISTE

 

Central to Jean-Baptiste’s film are both his father’s role as an extra in the procession and the influence of Frantz Fanon, whose writings remain a touch-stone in his practice. Jean-Baptiste’s search for archival material of his kindred, combined with his anti-colonial philosophy, seek to transform viewers’ understanding of Guiana—a South American nation (and overseas department of France) that President Macron confused as an island during his presidential campaign.

Maxime Jean-Baptiste is based between Brussels and Paris. His films focus on archival records related to French Guiana (though he prefers to call it “Guiana” in protest). His short films have screened at festivals across the world, including CPH:DOX, Locarno, and Sundance. In 2023, he was nominated for a César Award in Best Documentary Short Film for Écoutez le battement de nos images. More recently, his feature debut Kouté Vwa earned a Special Jury Prize at the Locarno Film Festival and continues its tour from one prestigious film festival to another.

Text written by Nicolas Pedrero-Setzer. Special thanks to Tyler Wilson.