A Piece of Sky
Women in prison and in factories
“Une part du ciel” (A Piece of Sky) tells of the resistance of women prisoners and women workers in a factory. In prison, Joanna obstinately questions the authority that confines her. Bound to a production line, Claudine is caught up by a past that links her to Joanna. Joanna’s lawyer asks her to testify to explain what pushed her friend to use violence but doing so would mean denouncing the union which seems to protect her.
Comings and goings between the prison and the factory, between intimacy and politics.
Joanna yields, breaks down and then finds the strength to declare once and for all the right to dignity for herself and the women surrounding her.
Claudine rebels. She agrees to testify, leads the factory struggle and joins in Joanna’s radicalism. She refuses the compromise offered by the union structure and agrees to bear her exclusion. The 2 women reveal themselves in the valor of their refusals and give their friendship a possible rebirth.
United by a mutual past as unionists, Claudine and Joanna (the fascinating Séverine Caneele, discovered in “L’Humanité” / Humanity) have no longer met since Joanna was imprisoned. Her former comrade’s testimony might be the last chance to save her. In her first film, Bénédicté Liénard avoids the pitfalls of a social film, yet convincingly faces the condition of women in prison and in factories. With a scenario that cleverly plays on the unsaid, the portraits of women have a rare accuracy. A test run of promising sobriety and maturity.
X. L. – Le Nouvel Observateur – October, 2002
A Piece of Sky
Sponsored by Alliance Francaise de Denver
Wed September 15, 2004, 7pm & 9pm, Muenzinger Auditorium
France, 2002, in French with English subtitles, B/W, 85 mins., unrated. • official site
Tickets
10 films for $60 with punch card
$9 general admission.
$7 w/UCB student ID,
$7 for senior citizens
$1 discount to anyone with a bike helmet
Free on your birthday! CU Cinema Studies students get in free.
Parking
Pay lot 360 (now only $1/hour!), across from the buffalo statue and next to the
Duane Physics tower, is closest to Muenzinger. Free parking can be found after 5pm at the meters
along Colorado Ave east of Folsom stadium and along University Ave west of Macky.
RTD Bus
Park elsewhere and catch the HOP to campus
International Film Series
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Established 1941 by James Sandoe.
First Person Cinema
(Originally called The Experimental Cinema Group)
Established 1955 by Carla Selby, Gladney Oakley, Bruce Conner and Stan Brakhage.
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(AKA The Rocky Mountain Film Center)
First offered degrees in filmmaking and critical studies in 1989 under the guidance of Virgil
Grillo.
Celebrating Stan
Created by Suranjan Ganguly in 2003.
C.U. Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts
Established 2017 by Chair Ernesto Acevedo-Muñoz.