The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire

“We are making a film about an artist who did not want to be remembered.” So states the titular figure of Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich's The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire, while breaking the fourth wall. Set amid a lush Caribbean-inspired landscape—captured using the Wexner Center's 16mm film camera—this award-winning film smoothly melds an awareness of its own production with a narrative account of the life of Suzanne Césaire. An Afro-surrealist poet and anti-colonial activist, she was long overshadowed by her husband, Aimé Césaire (who featured prominently in the Sarah Maldoror exhibition presented at the Wex in 2024). The film invites recognition of Césaire’s life and legacy as a mother, teacher, writer, and organizer. Actors read her writing aloud, blurring the line between reality and fiction in a lyrical commentary on the making of a biopic. In English and French with English subtitles. (75 mins., DCP)

A conversation about the film with director Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich follows the screening.

Supported by a 2023 Film/Video Studio residency.

See the entire Picture Lock lineup.

IMAGE CAPTION
The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire, courtesy of the artist.