Ouvertures
Moving from the frozen landscapes of the Jura mountains to the urban centres of Port-au-Prince, Ouvertures brings the Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture back to life. In France a Haitian researcher tries to read the past within the stratigraphic layers of Jurassic limestone, whilst in Haiti a group of young actors translate and rehearse scenes from Monsieur Toussaint, a play written by Édouard Glissant, that recounts the last days in the life of Louverture dying in exile in a prison cell in the Jura, 1803. Ghosts from the pantheon of Haitian history visit Louverture on his deathbed and put him to trial. As the play proceeds the actors become possessed by their characters, and eventually the ghost of Louverture joins the group and takes them on a voyage for a new kind of exile.
Website : https://thelivingandthedeadensemble.com/
Trailer : https://vimeo.com/389343430/96ffccecb8
Projections
Palmarès
10.19 : BFI London Film Festival - Experimenta (Work-in-progress)
02.20 : Berlinale - Forum (world premiere)
03.20 : CPH Dox - Denmark
05.20 : Kunstenfestivaldesarts - Belgium
06.20 : Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival - Greece
09.20 : Durban International Film Festival - South Africa
09.20 : Indielisboa - Portugal
09.20 : Trinidad et Tobaggo Film Festival
09.20 : New York Film Festival
09.20 : Kaunas Internatinal Film Festival - Lithuania
10/20 : CinéMartinique - Martinique
10/20 : Belo Horizonte International Film Festival - Brazil
11/20 : Kasseldocfest - Germany
11/20 : Rencontres internationales du Documentaire de Montréal - Canada
11/20 : Torino International Film Festival (international competition)
11/20 : International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)
PRIX
Special Mention Fipresci Prize (Berlinale)
The Living and the Dead Ensemble are a group of artists, performers and poets from Haiti, France and the United Kingdom. They initially came together in Haiti 2017, to produce the Haitian Creole translation and performance of the play Monsieur Toussaint by Édouard Glissant. Initiated from an original idea by Louis Henderson and Olivier Marboeuf, who have been collaborating as a director/producer partnership since 2014, the Ensemble’s first film OUVERTURES premiered at the Berlinale 2020 and was awarded a FIPRESCI special mention in the Forum section. Their work explores different possible methods of storytelling about the past and the present from a Caribbean perspective. The Ensemble produce texts, performances, films and installations.
The Ensemble are: Mackenson Bijou, Rossi Jacques Casimir, Dieuvela Cherestal, James Desiris, Louis Henderson, Léonard Jean Baptiste, Cynthia Maignan, Sophonie Maignan, Olivier Marboeuf, Mimétik Nèg.
The Living and The Dead Ensemble are the associated artists of Olivier Marboeuf’s residency at Ateliers Médicisduring the 2019/2020 season.