Archie Shepp

At first glance, the pairing of veteran American saxophonist Archie Shepp and German pianist Joachim Kuhn seems an unlikely one. Performance at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain - May 2011.

Answering the call of his homeland Algeria, there seems to be a path unfolding in front of him, and it is tortuous. Providence provides a child to guide him. The apparently pristine wilderness is heavy with the history of the land. Along a fine line between reality and fantasy, the past surfaces through archive footage. Strangely, the uncanny trip will lead the foreign son to connect with a landscape he hardly knows, and allow his intimate reunion with an estranged family.

From the island of Porquerolles to Cuba, it’s just a stone’s throw for Archie Shepp and Chucho Valdés! Relive the Afro-Cuban Project, an iconic concert that we fondly remember, for the 25th edition of Jazz à Porquerolles.

Foreign Office focuses on the period during which Algiers – between 1962 and 1972– became the “mecca of revolutionaries”, hosting representations of many liberation movements from Africa, Asia and the Americas, such as Eldridge Cleaverʼs International Section of the Black Panther Party, Mandelaʼs ANC, or the PAlGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) founded by Amilcar Cabral. Taking as a starting point this forgotten past of post-independence era and internationalism, Foreign Office, invites to reflect on history and its transmission, and on emancipation as essentially linked to poetry. The film shows two young Algerians “re-writing” this history through images, language, and orality, articulating an historiography defined by “cinematic montage” as well as by translation as forms of writing, investigating, and reflecting on history and its resonances.


To mark the 25th edition of Jazz à Porquerolles, ARTE is showing festival highlights from previous years: in 2010, jazz virtuoso Archie Shepp took to the stage with guitarist Marc Ribbot to perform his project ‘Stars In Your Eyes’.

It is Christmas Eve. Separated from her young son, Helly struggles for money. A solitary man, Didier pays her to play his fiancée for the night. But the act comes to a tragic end. Left stunned, Helly meets Marie, who takes her in, on her way to the coast. There they encounter Chris. All three will end the night together. It’s their last move in joy and perdition.

Charlie Banks, chronically unemployed, struggles to find dignity and a meaning for life in the impoverished Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts.