The six films that are screening at the second annual Tournées Film Festival this week and next have two things in common: They’re all in French, and they were chosen by current �ֲ���ý students.

Otherwise, the films range widely in setting, style, and message — from a classic Jean-Luc Godard film to a coming-of-age story in Tunisia to an animated dystopia. ��

“One of my personal goals for the festival is to show the many different cultures, viewpoints, animations, and people that make up the French-speaking world,” says Trevor Fry ’19 of Groton, Mass., who along with Gillian Coyne ’19 of New York selected the festival films in the spring. ��

A promotional still from A peine j’ouvre les yeux (“As I Open My Eyes”), a Tunisian film to be screened at the Tournées Film Festival.

The festival, which began Oct. 30 and runs through Nov. 11, is sponsored by the , which promotes French-American cultural exchange and supports film festivals on many college campuses.

The student organizers chose films from a list of several dozen that the foundation provided. One film had to be a classic in French cinema, but otherwise, they had plenty of wiggle room.

To pick the films and organize the festival, Fry, Coyne, and other French and francophone studies students drew from what they’d learned in their classes and in their work in the community: that French is spoken not only in France, but in African countries, in Canada, and in the United States.

“Our students are very sensitive to the idea that the French-speaking world is not just France, and that the francophone world has been dealing with this conflicting postcolonial history,” says Laura Balladur, a lecturer in French and francophone studies who advised the student organizers.

They also know that the multiplicity of French-speaking cultures extends to Lewiston.

“In Lewiston we have those with Franco-American roots, but we also have a big [French-speaking] immigrant population,” says Alyssa Frost ’18 of Boxford, Mass., a student organizer. “It’s up to us to go through all the synopses and find what resonates best with our community.”

Alyssa Frost ’18 of Boxford, Mass. and Avery Margerum ’18 of Wyncote, Pa., pose with a poster for the Tournées Film Festival, starting Oct. 30. As members of the Francophone Club, Frost and Margerum helped organize the festival. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

While five films will be screened at the Olin Arts Center, Examen d’état, a documentary about Congolese students preparing for a national exam, will be screened at the in Lewiston, preceded by a reception with Congolese music and food.

The Franco Center, a community hub for French speakers and learners in Central Maine, serves both Franco-Americans and people with roots in French-speaking African countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“It’s important for people to be able to see themselves in films like the one we’ll be showing,” says Jacynthe Jacques, language and cultural programs director at the Franco Center, “and it’s important for the community living here to be able to see other French-speaking cultures around the world, how different they are, but also how similar.”

A promotional still from Examen d’état (“National Diploma”), a film to be screened at the Tournées Film Festival. Examen d’état will show at the Franco Center.

Each film will be followed by a panel discussion with students and faculty from a range of departments, like German, anthropology, and gender and sexuality studies.

The goal, Fry said, is to show that the French language is relevant and accessible from any perspective. ��

“Lewiston’s francophone heritage is sparkling, and this festival should serve as a tool to continue its renaissance,” Fry says. “By having a community-wide program with publicity both on campus and off, the film viewings and discussions can work as bridges between various francophones or toward people who are simply interested in learning more about our world.”

+Click here to see the festival lineup.

As always, �ֲ���ý dancers will perform in the F.A.B. Winter Dance Showcase, taking place for the 11th time on Feb. 6, 2016. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

The “F.A.B.” Winter Dance Showcase, says Professor of Dance Carol Dilley, “gives audiences a rare chance to see a variety of dance styles, but it’s also an opportunity for the artists to network.

“Dancers of all kinds work together to present this program, from seasoned professionals exploring new works to young dancers broadening their horizons in this field that they love.”

�ֲ���ý students will present two of the 14 performances by dance artists from around Maine — as well as New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts — in the 11th , co-sponsored by �ֲ���ý College and the Franco Center, and taking place downtown at the Franco Center at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6.

Here’s the roster of 2016 F.A.B. performers:

• A �ֲ���ý senior from New York City, Mary Anne Bodnar will perform her piece “Sparkle.” A �ֲ���ý sophomore from Middleton, Mass., Jorge Piccole will perform a hip hop solo.
• Claire Porter and Sara Juli perform “Small Stories,” which they premiered at the American Dance Festival last summer. Porter, of New Jersey, is a 2013 Guggenheim Fellow who has presented her piece “PORTABLES” extensively. A dancer and professional fundraiser, Juli, of Portland, Maine, teaches at the �ֲ���ý Dance Festival and has been a resident artist at �ֲ���ý.
• Shawn Hove is a choreographer and dancer, lighting designer and media artist who was video co-director for the �ֲ���ý Dance Festival for a decade and is artistic director of the company “shove gently dance.”
• Dancers from the Community Dance Project Ensemble of Saco, a nonprofit dedicated to the infusion of dance in the Maine public school system and directed by Emma Arenstam Campbell ’08.
• Melinda��Buckwalter, Kristen Stake and Jacob DeRaadt present “Last Chance to Get It Right.” Buckwalter is a dance writer and movement researcher who resides in Western Massachusetts and is a visiting lecturer in dance at �ֲ���ý. Based in Portland, Stake is a dance artist and poet, and teaches contact improvisation. DeRaadt, also of Portland, is a sound artist who works with field recordings, tape manipulation, amplified metal and the human voice.
• Alexandra James of Portland works with the nonprofit Swift Urban Movement Project to teach a healthy, active, and social lifestyle through dance.
• Collective Motion, a Southern Maine-based modern dance company, was established in 2006 by Artistic Director Jennifer Bourgeault.
• Molly Gawler, of Monroe, Maine, is known as both a scion of Maine’s folksinging Gawler Family and a member of the renowned Pilobolus Dance Company, with which she toured internationally in a leading role in Shadowland.
• Dancers from the Portland School of Ballet CORPS Program, created in 1994 by Portland Ballet as an innovative partnership with Portland High School, resulting in a preprofessional performing arts high school curriculum unique in Maine.
• The Colby Dancers are directed by Annie Kloppenberg, assistant professor of theater and dance at Colby College. She founded and co-curates Moving Target Boston, and teaches and performs nationally with the improvisational ensemble Like You Mean It.
• Laura Peterson is a New York City-based dance artist and choreographer. Her work “Forever” was recently performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
• indiedanceworks is a Portland-based company, established in 2009 by Susan Thompson-Brown and Lisa Quijano Wolfinger, that has performed throughout Maine and New England.
• Portland Youth Dance is a nonprofit serving Greater Portland by providing a preprofessional dance company and outreach programs for kids and teens.

Admission to F.A.B. is $15 for the general public and $12 for seniors, plus a small fee for credit card purchases, available from the Franco Center at . The student admission fee is $5, cash at the door only.

For more information, please call 207-689-2000.

�ֲ���ý dancer Raissa Vodounon ’17 performs in a piece by Tomisha Edwards ’15. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Bigger and better than ever in its 10th year, the F.A.B Winter Dance Showcase returns with 18 performances by artists from Maine, Connecticut and New York —��including the acclaimed Dante Brown|Warehouse Dance —��beginning at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 7, at the Franco Center, 46 Cedar St.

Doors open at 7 p.m. with music by Les Bijoux Folk Orchestra, and the evening ends with a family-friendly traditional social dance accompanied by Les Bijoux. Admission is $15 for the general public, $12 for seniors and $5 for students (plus a small fee for credit card purchases), available from the Franco Center at .

The event is sponsored by �ֲ���ý College and the Franco Center. For more information, please call 207-689-2000.

“This fertile partnership between the Franco Center in Lewiston and the �ֲ���ý dance program has presented over 100 dance works over the course of nine concerts,” says Carol Dilley, associate professor of dance at �ֲ���ý and dance program director.

“For this year’s gala performance, many of those performers and choreographers are back, joining exciting new artists showing work for the first time.”

Artists new to F.A.B. include:
• Molly Gawler, known as both a scion of Maine’s folksinging Gawler Family and a member of the renowned Pilobolus Dance Company;
• Dante Brown of Warehouse Dance is a visiting member of the �ֲ���ý faculty;
• Karl Rogers and Shawn Hove are friends from the summertime �ֲ���ý Dance Festival;
• young Maine dancers from the Portland Ballet’s CORPS program, the Community Dance Project Ensemble in Saco and the Auburn Dance Center.

“F.A.B. gives audiences a rare chance to see a variety of dance styles,” says Dilley, “but it’s also an opportunity for the artists to network. Dancers of all kinds are working together to bring you this program, from seasoned professionals exploring new works to young dancers broadening their horizons in this field that they love.”

Performers also include:
• Hio Ridge, based in Denmark, Maine, and featuring award-winning artist Cookie Harrist and �ֲ���ý Dance Festival collaborator Delaney McDonough;
• indieworks, led by Susan Thompson Brown from Casco Bay Movers, Portland;
• Debi Irons and Collective Motion, a collaboration between two important figures in Maine dance;
• StripWrecked, a burlesque company from Portland back for a repeat performance;
L Street Dance Theater from Norway, Maine;
• �ֲ���ý dance students Talia Mason, Isaiah Rice and Deepsing Syangtan.

Mary Rice-DeFosse, professor of French and Francophone studies. (Sarah Crosby/�ֲ���ý College)

Community engagement makes �ֲ���ý distinctive — and the Department of French and Francophone Studies has, in turn, found distinctive ways to put that ethos into practice.

“We have a particular opportunity because �ֲ���ý is in a French-speaking community,” says Mary Rice-DeFosse, professor of French and Francophone studies.

Since arriving at �ֲ���ý 30 years ago, Rice-DeFosse has often aligned her curriculum with the interests of that community, one first defined by its French Canadian origins and now influenced by French-speakers from such African nations as Djibouti, Chad and Congo.

Rice-DeFosse’s achievements in community-engaged teaching have been, you might say, formidable. The Maine Legislature recently honored that track record by inducting her into the Maine Franco-American Hall of Fame, where she joins such notables as the late Lewiston politician Georgette Berubé, sociologist Madeleine Giguère and Yvon Labbé, a champion of Maine’s Franco culture.

Rice-DeFosse was inducted in a March 19 ceremony at the State House. She was nominated for the Hall of Fame by state Rep. Margaret Rotundo, director of policy and strategic initiatives for �ֲ���ý’ Harward Center for Community Partnerships, and chosen by the state’s Franco-American legislators.

“I was very moved,” says Rice-DeFosse. “There are so many people in the community who are deserving of that kind of an award, and it’s unusual for people who are not of French heritage.” (Her husband, the late John DeFosse, was of French descent.)

One of Rice-DeFosse’s best-known community projects is a video documentary depicting women who wove an early and important social safety net in the Twin Cities. Les Soeurs Grises / The Grey Nuns: Elles sont venues, elles ont servi / They Came, They Served was completed in 2012, and is part of in Lewiston (now known as the Franco Center).

A branch of the Sisters of Charity of St. Hyacinthe, the Grey Nuns came to Lewiston in 1878 on the heels of French Canadian immigrants drawn by the thousands to work in Twin City mills. The nuns established the city’s first hospital (today’s St. Mary’s Regional Health Center) along with a nursing home, two orphanages and a school for nurses, all just blocks from �ֲ���ý.

The Grey Nuns draws heavily on interviews, several conducted by �ֲ���ý students, with former residents of the orphanages and other community members, as well as footage of members of the order provided by St. Mary’s. Rice-DeFosse researched, wrote, narrated and co-produced the film, created at the behest of the Franco Center and in collaboration with St. Mary’s Health System, the contemporary descendant of the nuns’ good works.

“I learned an enormous amount about what these women had done,” she says. “How incredibly innovative they were, in terms of delivering health care services, care for the elderly and care for children without parents and or whose parents were working.”

Rice-DeFosse’s department, in recent years and with funding from the Harward Center and the Maine Campus Compact, has restructured its curriculum to incorporate community-engaged learning at every course level.

“In the early levels, it’s just an introduction to the local community, and the fact that there are French speakers here,” she explains. More advanced students have done translations for community-related websites and museum exhibitions, and have conducted oral histories with local residents for an ongoing project related to Rice-DeFosse’s course “French in Maine.”

“I think that introduction to the notion that there are different communities within this community is important,” Rice-DeFosse says. “And we’ve found that students, having been introduced to community-engaged learning here, are able to take that experience abroad.” Students frequently design and conduct community research projects while studying abroad, often in Africa.

Community engagement has its impact on campus as well as in the community. “I like to develop in students the appreciation that there are many ways of thinking,” says Rice-DeFosse, “and the ability to think critically inside of the French language, because it immediately draws students outside of themselves.”

For students undertaking community-engaged learning in the context of French and francophone studies, the language “is no longer kind of a classroom game, about memorizing words and parroting,” as it might be at the high school level.

“Because we live in Lewiston-Auburn, there is something about the language and the cultural differences that make what we are teaching real,” says Rice-DeFosse. “So that connection is, I think, truly vital.”