Cinema Guild Acquires North American Rights to ‘The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire’ (Exclusive)

Cinema Guild, the New York-based distributor of world cinema, has acquired the North American distribution rights for The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire, the primary function by artist and writer-director Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich.

The movie is described as “a post-biopic about Caribbean surrealist Suzanne Césaire, deconstructing the method of bringing an actually-lived life to movie. The movie examines her relationship along with her husband, French politician Aimé Césaire, and famed surrealist André Breton.” Filmed in South Florida, the film takes place primarily within the house of the movie set itself the place a small group of actors and crew confront the historical past of the author, stage scenes from her life, and attempt to make sense of it.

“Impressed by the constructions of Césaire’s personal writing, which frequently took a colonial conference and unraveled it, the movie deconstructs the narrative interval biopic style, shifting between a standard cinema and deconstructed experimental scenes,” Cinema Guild mentioned.

The corporate plans to launch the movie theatrically subsequent yr with what it described as “a 35mm print tour.”

Starring César Award-winning Zita Hanrot, Motell Gyn Foster, and Josué Gutierrez, The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire contains a soundtrack by singer Sabine McCalla. It premiered on the Worldwide Movie Competition Rotterdam earlier this yr, adopted by screenings on the likes of FIDMarseille, the Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition, the New York Movie Competition, the BFI London Movie Competition, and the Viennale.

In a latest interview with THR, Hunt-Ehrlich mentioned that “surrealism is the crack in expectation,” explaining that she likes to shock audiences along with her movies and their type. “How do you create that jolt or that spark the place the end result is just not that you’re lulled into an anticipated end result, however one thing else takes place?”

“Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich is an thrilling new voice in cinema,” mentioned Cinema Guild president Peter Kelly. “This primary function is sensible, stunning, and certain to begin many discussions, we are able to’t wait to share this one with audiences.”

Added Hunt-Ehrlich: “I’m blissful to be partnering with Cinema Guild. It’s an honor to have them carry The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire to a wider viewers and to be within the firm of the opposite artists and filmmakers they work with.”

Cinema Guild’s upcoming releases embody Hong Sangsoo’s A Traveler’s Wants, By the Stream, Matías Piñeiro’s You Burn Me, and a retrospective of João César Monteiro’s movies in 4k restoration. Latest releases embody Kazik Radwanski’s Matt and Mara, in addition to a 4K restoration of Shinji Somai’s Transferring.

Hunt-Ehrlich focuses on movies that she describes as being “involved with the internal worlds of Black girls.” Her works have been screened on the Berlinale, La Biennale di Venezia, the Guggenheim Museum, the Tate Trendy, and the Whitney Museum of Artwork.