WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Jan. 25, 2010 -- Over five consecutive Mondays, from Feb. 8 to March 8, the Williams College Department of Romance Languages will screen five recent films from France as part of the series "Faith, Hope, Identity: Religious and Cultural Diversity in Contemporary French Film." Each screening will take place at 7 p.m. at Images Cinema on Spring Street. The screenings are open to the public and free.

The "Faith, Hope, Identity: Religious and Cultural Diversity in Contemporary French Film" series presents films that examine the diverse ways in which secular citizens and religious communities approach the notions of celebration, survival, study, prayer, life and death in contemporary France.

Professors Brian Martin, Katarzyna Pieprzak, Alexandra Garbarini, and Denise Buell from the Williams College Departments of Romance Languages, History, and Religion will give introductions to the films in the series.

The series will commence on Monday, Feb. 8 with the screening of Laurent Cantet's "The Class" (Entre les murs).  The film was the 2008 winner of the prestigious award Palme d'Or. It is based on the best-selling book by teacher François Bégaudeau and is about a teacher and his students at a diverse Parisian junior high school. The director filmed with a cast of non-professional actors to create a hybrid documentary/narrative product that tangles themes of race, ethnicity, immigration, integration, religious and cultural diversity.

The following Monday Images will show "Being Jewish in France" (Comme un juif en France) by Yves Jeuland. The film follows the history of Jews in France, which was the first country to grant Jews citizenship. "Being Jewish in France" examines events, such as the Dreyfus Affair, Vichy's betrayal, the issue of Sephardic Jews in France, as well as some contemporary, 21st century problems. The film uses interviews with leading French politicians, intellectuals, and artists, who talk about their own and their families' experience as Jews in France.

On Monday, Feb. 22, André Téchiné's "The Witnesses" (Les Témoins) will be shown. The movie is set in 1984-85 and examines the lives of Parisians in the first years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The movie combines personal and political aspects of the struggle with the disease and explores the relationships of help and support between men and women, gay and straight, rich and poor, Christians and Muslims.

Next in the series, on March 1, will be "Into Great Silence" (Le Grand Silence) by Philip Gröning. The movie is a documentary about the Grande Chartreuse monastery, situated in the French Alps. Gröning lived with the monks for six months and filmed their everyday activities without the help of a crew or artificial lighting.

The last film of the series, "A Christmas Tale" (Un Conte de Noël), will be shown on Monday, Mar. 8. The film is set in the small French city of Roubaix and features the Vuillard family and the problems it encounters: sickness, sibling rivalry, and parent-child confrontations.

The "Faith, Hope, Identity: Religious and Cultural Diversity in Contemporary French Film" series is free and open to the public. It is a collaboration of the Tournée Festival of the French-American Cultural Exchange Council, which was made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Ministry of Culture (CNC), as well as the Florence Gould Foundation, the Grand Marnier Foundation, Highbrow Entertainment, Agnés B., and the Franco-American Cultural Fund. Presented by the Williams College Department of Romance Languages and co-sponsored by the Center for Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.

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