Vivian Maier is now considered a major American photographer but she never published her work and died in obscurity, not knowing the interest her work would provoke. Maier was born in New York City in 1926. She spent her childhood and early twenties between the States and France, her mother’s home country. She returned to … Continue reading “Vivian Maier: Portraits of America and Self”
Just ahead of the COP26 summit in Glasgow at the end of October, a cinema release for the documentary I am Greta. The young environmental activist who started School Strike for the Climate in 2018 is still only 18, but has had a profound effect on environmentalists young and old. The documentary was made almost … Continue reading “She is Greta”
Yes, that is legendary American director Spike Lee peering out of the poster for the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. He is the president of the jury for the 74th festival. Two months later than usual, and with cinema releases having been largely suspended for a year, it will be an unusual edition. Filmlovers everywhere will … Continue reading “Cannes is Back!”
The Great Hack is a new documentary made for Netflix on the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal over the use of social-media users’ data to potentially manipulate the outcome of elections including the 2016 U.S. Presidential election and the UK Brexit referendum. This B1-level resource based on an interview with the two directors of the documentary is … Continue reading “The Great Hack”
Forty-six years after it was filmed, an extraordinary documentary has been released of Aretha Franklin recording her most popular album, and the biggest selling gospel album of all time. The “Queen of Soul” was at the height of her career in 1972, having recorded 11 consecutive Number 1 singles in the pop and R&B charts. … Continue reading “Amazing Grace”
Dorothea Lange’s iconic photos of Depression-era America and the farming families forced to flee meteorological and financial disasters often focus on the roads the migrants travelled. In Shine Bright 1re Advanced File 4 “On the Road”, pupils analyse a photo by Lange juxtaposed with extracts from John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. This resource will … Continue reading “Dorothea Lange: On the Road”
In honour of the Black History Month, the Institut Franco-Américain in Rennes has two events centered around author James Baldwin, just in time for the release of the Oscar-nominated If Beale Street Could Talk. Born in 1924 in Harlem, New York, Baldwin is remembered as a novelist, poet, playwright, essayist and social critic. From 1948 … Continue reading “Black History Month in Rennes”
We had so many fabulous entries to our Dorothea Lange creative writing contest that we’ve chosen 30 winners instead of 10. Here are the winning texts from collège and Seconde pupils, in alphabetical order except where we’ve regrouped texts about a single photo. Agathe, Mme Joubry’s class, Lycée Gustave Monod, Enghien les Bains (95) Damaged … Continue reading “Dorothea Lange Winners Collège and Seconde”
We had so many fabulous entries to our Dorothea Lange creative writing contest that we’ve chosen 30 winners instead of 10. Here are the winning texts from Première pupils, in alphabetical order except where we’ve regrouped texts about a single photo. (We’ve included Première LVA pupils with the Terminale winners.) Here are two of our … Continue reading “Dorothea Lange Winners Première”
We had so many fabulous entries to our Dorothea Lange creative writing contest that we’ve chosen 30 winners instead of 10. Here are the winning texts from Première LVA and Terminale pupils, in alphabetical order except where we’ve regrouped texts about a single photo. Aminata, M. Benain’s class, Lycée Gustave Monod, Enghien-les-Bains (95) Alabama, 1938, … Continue reading “Dorothea Lange Winners Première LVA and Terminale”
