Île Courts… everywhere!

Pointe Canon, Bambou, Tamarin, Trou d’Eau Douce, Pamplemousses and Port-Louis: the Île Courts festival brings cinema to the villages, from November 28 to December 13., with six free screenings. The organizers have put together programs for the whole family, with short films from Mauritius, Madagascar and Reunion, and others from India, Kenya and Lebanon, or even Brazil. Dominique Bellier

The Mauritius International Short Film Festival returns after eight years, more determined than ever to celebrate independent cinema. In eleven editions, Île Courts has attracted some 47,000 filmgoers, with a host of writing workshops, master classes and training courses in the 7e art, etc. The organizing association, Porteurs d’Images, also supported young filmmakers and produced 45 short films, which it promoted internationally.

This year’s event will include a professional day and image education workshops, but the festival’s main aim is to bring local, regional and international arthouse cinema to the most isolated audiences. Giant screens will be set up on public beaches, soccer fields and even in the heart ofPort-Louis, at the Café du Vieux Conseil! Each screening lasts around an hour and a half and features 6 to 8 films from all genres and countries.

This 12th^e edition will be about us, with Christopher Amurat’s documentary Bann Vag Laliberte, which explores the realities of a coastal village in the face of tourism and real estate development… Grand Prix in Clermont-Ferrand, Mohammed Almughanni’s Une orange pour Jaffa (An Orange for Jaffa) tells the story of a Palestinian’s daily commute. Children’s hearts will marvel at Ross Stringer’s Crab Day, which immerses viewers in the lives of British fishermen, and Marion Jamault’s Filante, in which a little girl wonders why her star doesn’t grant her wish…

For more information: www.porteursdimages.org