{"id":8998838,"date":"2026-08-11T18:45:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T18:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/villa-albertine.org\/va\/?post_type=app_event&p=8998838"},"modified":"2026-08-11T21:11:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T21:11:47","slug":"alice-diop-in-person-bampfa","status":"publish","type":"app_event","link":"https:\/\/villa-albertine.org\/va\/events\/alice-diop-in-person-bampfa\/","title":{"rendered":"Alice Diop in Person at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The filmmaker, witness, and poetic chronicler of contemporary France will be in residence at UC Berkeley in September alongside a retrospective of her works at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born and raised in Seine-Saint-Denis, the suburban department north and east of Paris, filmmaker Alice Diop has developed a body of work attentive to communities and experiences often underrepresented on French screens. Across eight documentaries and her acclaimed debut fiction, Saint Omer<\/em> (2022), she combines formal rigor with a sustained ethical engagement with questions of race, class, geography, gender, and belonging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In collaboration with Diop\u2019s appointment as the 2026\u201327 Avenali Chair in the Humanities at UC Berkeley\u2019s Townsend Center for the Humanities and Pajus Distinguished Visitor in French Studies, BAMPFA presents a retrospective of her films. In both her documentary and fiction, Diop\u2019s films examines the social and political forces that shape individual lives while foregrounding the complexity of personal experience. Her work offers a nuanced portrait of contemporary France and asks how cinema can become a means of historical, sociological, and political inquiry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alice Diop\u2019s visit is made possible by the Townsend Center for the Humanities, the Department of French, and Villa Albertine San Francisco, with additional support from the Center for Interdisciplinary Critical Inquiry and the Center for African Studies<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Saint Omer<\/em>,  2022<\/strong> 
Thursday September 3, 7pm <\/strong>
 
Saint Omer follows a novelist observing the trail of a woman accused of murdering her child has been described as \u201cA complex, brilliant film\u201d by the New Yorker, and was France\u2019s official entry for the 2022 Academy Awards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Screening followed by a conversation between Alice Diop and Professor Debarati Sanyal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We,<\/em>  2021<\/strong> 
Friday September 4, 7pm <\/strong>
 
journey along the suburban train line that spans Paris blossoms into a representation of the myriad voices, cultures, and experiences that make up France.  This film has been called a \u201ctender homage to the unnoticed\u201d by The Guardian. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Screening followed by a conversation between Alice Diop and Maya Sidhu. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On Call,  2016<\/strong> 
Thursday September 10, 7pm <\/strong>
 
Diop uncovers the endless stories available within the walls of a single doctor\u2019s clinic offering care to immigrants and refugees.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Screening followed by a conversation between Alice Diop and Professor Iggy Cortez. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Danton’s Death<\/em>,  2011 and Towards Tenderness<\/em>, 2016<\/strong> 
Sunday September 13, 3:30pm 
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In Danton\u2019s Death<\/em>, a young black actor attending a prestigious drama school offering training in classical theater finds his opportunities limited due to racialized stereotyping. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Towards Tenderness<\/em>, a group of young men discuss masculinity while traversing complicated social terrain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Screenings followed by a conversation between Alice Diop and Professor Damon Young. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Senegalese Meet Scene-Gallic<\/em>,  2007, and Fragments for Venus<\/em>, 2025<\/strong> 
Friday September 18, 7pm <\/strong>
 
Two films that mark the start of Alice\u2019s filmmaing. Senegalese Meet Scene-Gallic<\/em> contemplates migration, exile, and fate in the homeland of the director\u2019s mother. Fragments for Venus <\/em>follows a black woman observing Western paintings of Black subjects installed at the Louvre, while another woman encounters the Black art in the streets of Brooklyn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Film introduction by Maya Sidhu.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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