Euzhan Palcy facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Euzhan Palcy
Palcy at the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival
Born	(1958-01-13) 13 January 1958 (age 67) Martinique
Alma mater	University of Paris École nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière
Occupation	Filmmaker
Years active	1975–present
Notable work	Sugar Cane Alley ( La Rue Cases-Nègres) A Dry White Season

Euzhan Palcy (born 13 January 1958) is a talented filmmaker from Martinique. She is a director, screenwriter, and producer. Her movies often explore important topics like race, gender, and politics. She especially focuses on how colonialism has affected people over time.

Palcy's first major film, Sugar Cane Alley (also known as La Rue Cases-Nègres), came out in 1983. It won many awards. With her 1989 film, A Dry White Season, she made history. She became the first Black female director to have a movie produced by a big Hollywood studio, MGM.

She also directed the independent film Siméon in 1992. After that, she started directing documentaries and TV projects. These include Aimé Césaire: A Voice for History (1994). She also directed the TV movies Ruby Bridges (1998) and The Killing Yard (2001).

Throughout her career, Palcy has often been the first Black female director to achieve certain milestones. She was the first Black director to win a César Award (France's top film award). She also won the Venice Film Festival's Silver Lion for Sugar Cane Alley. In 2022, she received an Academy Honorary Award for her amazing contributions to cinema.

Euzhan Palcy's Early Life and Learning

Euzhan Palcy was born in Martinique. This island is an overseas region of France. As she grew up, she loved studying films by famous directors. These included Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock, and Orson Welles.

At just 10 years old, she decided she wanted to be a filmmaker. She was unhappy with how Black people were shown in movies and TV. She wanted to create more accurate and respectful portrayals. Palcy said she felt it was her job to "restore the roots and heal the wounds of history."

She went to college in Martinique and later worked at a local TV station. As a teenager, she was a successful poet and songwriter. This led to her hosting a weekly poetry show on TV. There, she wrote and directed her first short film, La Messagère. This film was about a girl and her grandmother. It also showed the lives of banana plantation workers. It was the first film made in the West Indies (Caribbean islands).

In 1975, Palcy moved to Paris, France. She earned a master's degree in French literature and theater. She also studied art, archaeology, and film. Soon, she began working on her first feature film, Sugar Cane Alley. This movie was based on a book by Joseph Zobel. The book was about the struggles for change in race relations. Palcy found the book when she was 14. She said it was the first time she read a book by a Black person from her own country.

While in Paris, she got help from famous French filmmaker François Truffaut. In 1982, the French government helped fund her film with a grant.

Palcy's Amazing Film Career

Starting with Sugar Cane Alley

In Paris, with encouragement from François Truffaut, Palcy made her first feature film. It was Sugar Cane Alley (1983). The movie cost less than $1 million to make. It showed life on a sugar cane plantation in Martinique in the 1930s. We see this life through the eyes of a young boy.

Sugar Cane Alley won over 17 international awards. It received the Venice Film Festival Silver Lion award. It also won the Coppa Volpi for Best Lead Actress. The film also earned the important César Award for best first feature film. This is like the French version of an Academy Award. After seeing her work, Robert Redford invited her to the 1984 Sundance Director's Lab.

Directing A Dry White Season

In 1989, Palcy wrote and directed A Dry White Season. This American drama film starred famous actors like Donald Sutherland and Marlon Brando. It was based on a 1979 novel by South African writer André Brink. The movie is set in South Africa in 1976. It deals with the unfair system of apartheid.

Palcy was the only woman filmmaker to direct Marlon Brando. He came out of retirement to act in the film for free. He was impressed by Palcy's dedication to social change. Palcy was also the first Black director to guide an actor to an Oscar nomination.

The film focused on social movements in South Africa and the Soweto riots. It was praised for showing the politics of apartheid in a very human way. Palcy even risked her life traveling secretly to South Africa. She wanted to research the riots accurately. She pretended to be a recording artist to avoid the secret police.

Palcy became the first Black female director to have a film produced by a major Hollywood studio. She was also the only Black filmmaker to make a movie against apartheid in the U.S. while Nelson Mandela was in prison. Senator Ted Kennedy supported the film. He called it a "powerful story of the violence, injustice and inhumanity of that system." Brando's acting in the movie earned him an Academy Award nomination. Palcy received the "Orson Welles Award" for her great work.

Later Films and Documentaries

By 1992, Palcy explored a different style with Simeon. This musical comedy fairytale showed the lively spirit of her home, Martinique. It was set in the Caribbean and Paris.

She then stayed in France to create a three-part documentary. It was called Aimé Césaire, A Voice For History (1994). This film was about the famous Martinican poet and philosopher, Aimé Césaire.

Later, she worked for Disney/ABC Studios. She directed and produced an episode of The Wonderful World of Disney. It was called Ruby Bridges (1998). This was the true story of Ruby Bridges, a young girl who was the first to integrate public schools in New Orleans. President Bill Clinton and Disney President Michael Eisner introduced the film from the White House. Palcy's film won four awards.

For Paramount/Showtime Studios, Palcy directed The Killing Yard (2001). This film starred Alan Alda. It was based on the true events of the 1971 Attica prison riot. This event greatly impacted the American prison system. The film won a Silver Gavel Award for "Best Film About Justice."

In 2005, Palcy returned to documentaries with Parcours de Dissidents. This film told the forgotten story of "dissidents." These were men and women from Martinique and Guadeloupe who left their islands during WWII. Many of them fought for the liberation of France. In 2007, Palcy wrote and directed Les Mariées de I’isles Bourbon. This was a romantic historical adventure. It told the story of three women who traveled from France to marry French people on the island of Réunion.

Palcy's passion for life and kindness inspires all her projects. She is interested in many film types, including animation, thrillers, comedies, and action movies. She is developing an animated film called Katoumbaza. She is also working on a film about Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman aviator. Her next film to direct is Teaching Toots, a comedy-drama about illiteracy.

Her interest in helping others and supporting young people is well known. Her most recent production is Moly. This is a short film about Moly Kane, a young Senegalese filmmaker with one leg. The film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival. Palcy announced that Moly Kane would receive a prosthetic leg so he could film more freely.

In 2022, Euzhan Palcy received an Honorary Oscar. The Academy praised her as "a pioneering filmmaker whose groundbreaking significance in international cinema is cemented in film history." In her acceptance speech, Palcy thanked the Academy for helping to change the film industry. She said it encouraged her to keep making movies her own way, without her voice being silenced.

Palcy's Film Style and Themes

Euzhan Palcy's films are set in different places. However, her focus on Black culture always stays the same. Her movies highlight themes and issues that connect people across different places. These include Martinique, France, South Africa, and America.

Themes of colonialism are important in Sugarcane Alley and A Dry White Season. These films show how Black communities have suffered from oppression.

Palcy often uses actors who are not professionals in her films. She works with them to make sure the films feel real. In Sugarcane Alley, many actors were actual sugar cane workers. Palcy had them live on the film set for two months before filming began. She wanted them to feel comfortable and natural in their roles.

For A Dry White Season, Palcy wanted people from South Africa who had lived under apartheid to act in the scenes. This was difficult because South Africans were not allowed to travel easily. Palcy went to great lengths to fly the cast from South Africa to London, then to Zimbabwe. They had to pretend to be artists to get passports. This shows how dedicated she was to making the story authentic.

Euzhan Palcy's Films

Movies

Television Projects

Awards and Special Recognition

Euzhan Palcy has received many awards and honors throughout her career:

• 1983: Venice Film Festival, Silver Lion and UNICEF Award for La Rue Cases-Nègres
• 1984: César Awards, Best First Work for La Rue Cases-Nègres
• 1990: National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Candace Award for Trailblazing
• 2001: Cannes Film Festival, Sojourner Truth Award
• 2002: Silver Gavel Award by the American Bar Association for The Killing Yard
• 2013: Cannes Classics official selection for Simeon
• 2022: Academy Honorary Award

She has also been recognized in many other ways:

• 1984: First woman and first Black director to win a French Oscar (César Award).
• 1989: Named one of Glamour Magazine's 10 Most Inspiring Women.
• 1997: A movie theater in Amiens, France, was named Cinema Euzhan Palcy in her honor.
• 2000: Martinique's first high school for film study was named after her.
• 2004: Received the National Order of the Legion of Honour, a high French award.
• 2007: The National Maritime Museum in London held her first retrospective (a showing of her past works).
• 2009: Her film Sugar Cane Alley was chosen for the third time by the French National Educational Organization to be studied in French schools. This was a record!
• 2011: The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City honored her with "Filmmaker in Focus: Euzhan Palcy." This was the first retrospective of a Black woman filmmaker at MoMA.
• 2011: Received the Officer Medal of the National Order of Merit from French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
• 2013: Became the first woman President of the Fespaco Grand Jury (a major African film festival).
• 2018: Inducted into the Black Achiever's Wall of the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool.
• 2019: Named one of The WRAP's 17 Women Who Revolutionized Hollywood.

See also

In Spanish: Euzhan Palcy para niños