Smugglers’ Songs (Les Chants de Mandrin)
Louis Mandrin was a real-life Robin Hood in eighteenth century France, finally executed for his brigandage. Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche’s film begins at this point, as the ragtag remainder of his outfit strive to keep his spirit alive. Funded by their smuggling profits and aided by, of all things, an aristocrat, the gang arranges for publication of Mandrin’s poetry, selling his words as a call to revolution. Zaïmeche’s film shows how the words of one person can lead to the birth of a movement. Director: Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche

The Lady with a Dog (La Dame au chien)
In Damien Manivel’s short, a teenager finds a dog loose in the park. He returns it to its owner, who answers the door half-drunk. She invites him in for a drink to say thanks. As the boy sits there uncomfortably, tensions rise between these three ill-met characters. Director: Damien Manivel

(Includes Q&A with Luce Vigo and Laurent Marie.)<