Friday, July 20, 2007

C'est leur vie

Voici une autre vidéo, documentaire, sur l'exode des Pieds Noirs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tfhfT1W1eQ



Le film s'appelle "C'est leur vie" réalisé par Kahina Aid.

YouTube and the Pieds-Noirs

fête à Nîmes

Voici ce que j'ai trouvé sur YouTube.com aujourd'hui. C'est l'Ascension, le Pèlerinage de Notre Dame de Santa Cruz, où j'étais en mai et dont je parle en bas. La seule chose qui manque c'est la procession de la Vierge. Sinon, c'est plus ou moins ce que j'ai vécu.

Sunday, July 8, 2007

45 years later - l'Amicale des Saïdeens

My gratitude is long overdue to the members of the Amicale des Saïdeens who invited me as a guest of honor to their commemoration of their exile from Algeria. It's now 45 years after their departure and they celebrated their 18th biennial reunion in Toulouse on May 26 and 27, 2007. Their president, Louis Baylé, and his family warmly welcomed me, and I was able to interview a number of the association's members about their history, personal pasts in Algeria, arrivals in France, and of special interest to me, their recent return voyages to their lost homeland. I'll be writing a separate blog post about these returns and the film they made after a collective voyage to Saïda in the fall 2006. Members Bernard and Amicie Allène collected footage from a number of participants and edited this into a film, Saïda…on revient! sur les pas de notre enfance, which was projected at the reunion. The projection of this film allowed the 500 people in attendance to experience a return of their own, much like Derrida's return to Algeria through Safaa Fathy's eyes in their 1999 film D'ailleurs Derrida, and the subsequent book, Tourner les mots (2000).

Very special thanks to the Baylé family who treated me like an honored guest during our stay in Toulouse and have sent me many materials for my research. I'd also like to thank Claire Lesca, the new treasurer of the association who spent a good hour during lunch giving me precious bits of information.