French Film Festival Returns To UC Riverside Campus Next Month

RIVERSIDE – French film gets its time to shine in Riverside this winter as the Tournees Festival returns to the UCR campus.

The film festival, which was conceived as a way to help colleges shine a spotlight on French film, returns to UC Riverside Feb. 11 and will run through Feb. 25.

The theme of this year’s Tournees Festival is “Liberte, Identie, Mordernite!” The title refers to the ideals of the French Revolution, said Heidi Brevik-Zender, assistant professor of French and comparative literature and the festival’s advisor at UC Riverside.

“The French Revolution recently celebrated its 220th anniversary,” said Brevik-Zender. “In light of that, we have chosen films that explore the modern changing face of French identity and that use individual stories to illuminate larger questions about the forms and expressions of love, conflict, confinement, and liberation.”

The Tournees Festival is made possible with support from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the French Ministry of Culture, the Florence Gould Foundation, the Grand Marnier Foundation, Highbrow Entertainment and the Franco-American Cultural Fund.

Additional funding was provided by the Center for Ideas and Society at UCR.

Grants to fund the festival from the French American Cultural Exchange are provided for a maximum of five consecutive years. This is the fifth year of the festival.

“The films deal with defining the self within shifting contexts, what happens when those borders are rearranged by devastation or change or loss, and how some very fascinating people live out their lives within and beyond these revolutionary moments,” said Regina Yung Lee, a graduate student and festival organizer.

This year’s film’s include “I’ve Loved You So Long,” “Love Songs,” The Beaches of Agnes,” “The Class,” and “The Secret of the Grain.”

All films will be shown from 35mm prints, with English subtitles, at 7 p.m. at University Village UltraStar Cinemas in University Village, 1201 University Ave., Riverside. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for students and seniors with ID.

More information is at complitforlang.ucr.edu/news-events/french-film- festival.html .