GALLANT INDIES (INDES GALANTES)

Friday, November 5 – Truffaut Theatre – 4:00 pm
(Screening ends at 5:50 pm)

COLCOA DOCUMENTARIES

Presented in Association with:

Pyramide International,

Women in Film

Directed by: Philippe Béziat
Written by: Philippe Béziat
Produced by: Philippe Martin, David Thion (Les Films Pelléas), Arte France Cinéma, Opéra de Paris
Cinematography: Philippe Béziat
Film Editing: Henri-Pierre Rasamon
Cast: Clément Cogitore
Original Score: Thomas Dappelo
International Sales: Pyramide International

In the fall of 2019, multi-media artist Clément Cogitore and choreographer Bintou Dembélé metaphorically stormed the Bastille, mounting a groundbreaking production of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s baroque opera Les Indes Galantes at the Opéra Bastille. What was revolutionary was their casting of 30 mind-blowing, multi-ethnic dancers, each a veritable master of a different form of freestyle street dance — hip-hop, krumping, voguing, flexing, popping — to bring Rameau’s masterpiece about colonization and enslavement to life. Philippe Béziat’s exhilarating documentary recounts an entire year of rehearsals and preparations leading up to that unprecedented opening night.

Philippe Béziat has directed numerous music- and opera-related documentaries and TV movies, beginning with his early shorts Le JT Petit Opéra (1997), inspired by John Adams’ Fearful Symmetries, and Musica da camera (2004), based on the music of George Crumb. His feature-length films include Les contes d’Hoffman (2008), documenting Olivier Py’s staging of the Offenbach opera; Pelléas et Mélisande (2012), a chronicle of Robert Wilson’s staging of the Debussy opera; Le phénomène “Quatre Saisons” (2012), featuring mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli; and Becoming Traviata (COLCOA 2013), featuring renowned French coloratura soprano Natalie Dessay.