Moune Ô

by Maxime Jean-Baptiste

Belgium, Guyana, France

2022

16 min

French with English subtitles

Short film

Documentary

Color

DCP

Berlinale Forum 2022

In Competition 2022

Official synopsis

The analysis of images from the preview of a film leads a director to investigate the survival of the colonial heritage in French Guiana, as well as his own family history.

The programmer’s eye

By analysing a short video of the preview of “Jean Galmot l'aventurier”, Maxime Jean-Baptiste weaves a visual, sincere and touching reflection on Guyana as an object of colonisation of the gaze. The strength of “Moune Ô” lies in the articulation that the director offers between his personal dynamics and that of a collective history. With its soundtrack by Josy Massy, whose title “Moune Ô” recalls the essential desire for self-determination, this short film makes the silences of the images that we miss – in which the ghosts of extractivism resound – sing.

Natacha Seweryn

Biography and Filmography

Maxime Jean-Baptiste (°1993) grew up in the context of the Guyanese and West Indian diaspora in France. His work delves into the complexities of colonial history, focusing on archives and forms of reconstitution to conceive a living, embodied memory. His films have travelled to numerous festivals (CPH:DOX, Hot Docs, ISFF Clermont-Ferrand, IDFA, Berlinale Forum). Kouté vwa(2024) is his first feature film.

2024 : Listen to the voices - Maxime Jean-Baptiste - Director

2022 : Moune Ô (SHORT) - Maxime Jean-Baptiste - Director

2021 : Listen to the Beat of Our Images (SHORT) - Maxime & Audrey Jean-Baptiste - Co-Director

2018 : Our Voice (SHORT) - Maxime Jean-Baptiste - Director

Maxime Jean-Baptiste

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