Films Span Social Gap

There was no red carpet and the blue Mediterranean was missing, but there was plenty of enthusiasm among the hundreds of people gathered in front of a giant screen in a small park between several concrete-tower tenement houses.

This year the Cannes en Banlieu festival will bring Cannes movie premiers to ten Paris suburbs.

It was the idea of filmmaker Luc Besson, who says he was deeply disturbed by the 2005 riots that shook suburbs such as St. Denis.

"This year was the 60th anniversary of Cannes, so that was a good opportunity to link the two things and say you can't go to Cannes, so Cannes will come to you," said Besson. "And the Cannes Festival was kind enough to give us films every night so we can show them to all these neighborhoods so they feel respected."

"Bridge between universes"

On a warm spring evening a crowd showed up several hours before the movie begins to enjoy local performers and even a double Dutch jump rope competition. There was colorful African dress and lots of Muslim headscarves.

Local singer Aboo, who moved to the Paris suburbs from Mali when he was two year old, said he was happy he was able to perform there.

Cannes is very prestigious," said Aboo, "but it's far. This is a great idea because it lets people get a little closer to this world of cinema. This event can inspire young people because it will give them the chance to see a film they might not ordinarily see. We could call it a sort of a bridge between two universes."

Not the real thing

Not everyone is so enthusiastic about the event, however.

"This isn't like Cannes," said a group of young men in their early twenties who said they have no jobs. "There are no buildings like this in Cannes and there are no blacks or Arabs. We'd like to go to Cannes, but we've been stuck in this crappy place for the past 20 years."

At twilight, film director Luc Besson took the stage to introduce a surprise guest, French comedian and film star Jemal Debbouz, originally from Morocco. Debbouz was greeted with enthusiastic screams from fans.

Make-believe

"We’re gonna dream tonight, dream ladies and gentlemen, yes we wanna dream!" yelled the actor to the ecstatic crowd.

On a political note, Debbouz said he hoped new French president Nicolas Sarkozy would consider the people of Saint Denis and of all the suburbs. Sarkozy has been blamed for aggravating the 2005 riots with harsh words and rough tactics.

When the sky grew dark, the movie begun and the crowd grew quiet with interest. Families gathered to watch from the windows of the surrounding high rises. Even if only for a short while, the magic of Cannes settled in Saint Denis.