Wednesday 29.07

A few meters from Place Rouppe, this hallway’s name is worthy of its own May Day, which happens to be the day on which the Nova team went to visit the occupants of this discreet and welcoming gallery. The hallway connects boulevard Lemonnier with avenue Stalingrand, tucked away in the shadow of the Palais du Midi. Like the latter, it’s part of the Haussmanian architecture created to attract the bourgeoisie that took root along the large boulevards of the end of the 19th century. In a twist of irony, the working classes ended up being in possession of the area. Sun-kissed walls, mint tea terraces, the passageway reflects the shopkeepers you find in avenue Stalingrad.
The alley was abandoned for a long time and revived in 2006 when it became a meeting point for football amateurs. It’s current use, however, is not sufficiently convivial for everyone: in fact, the neighborhood contract states that it plans to develop the site into a new commercial pole, in order to improve the location’s attractivity and conviviality. For whom? The passageway is located at the outside edge of the center city, a kind of "gateway" as most urbanists would all it. The public space would be used to appeal to passengers arriving at the TGV-Midi train station. But we like it just the way it is! And we invite you to share in the warm simplicity of this special place.

 Passage du travail / Arbeidsdoorgang
(Palais du Midi / Zuidpaleis, 1000 Bxxl)

° Metro : Lemonnier
° Tram : 4, 3 (Anneessens)
° Night bus: N17, N18, N13

At Epinay-sur-Seine, on the outskirts of Paris, we find ourselves in a shopping center in the heart of the completely desolated "la Source" housing projects. Ali’s convenience store is the only meeting place left for the neighborhood. This is where the director installs her camera to film an amazing gallery of portraits, a reflection of the local population’s diversity as well as of it’s social and economic situation. Chantal Briet uses touches of humor as well as real moments of joy -thanks to Ali’s jovial spirit- to help us discover the humanity of this corner of the world, of the people of all ages and creeds who live there and often under precarious conditions. With footage that spans four years, "Alimentation générale" is a kind of filmic diary of the neighborhood. A documentary about a neighborhood’s social net as told by a small shopkeeper on the brink of extinction...

If Ali Zebboudj, the film’s shopkeeper, were still around today, he definitely would’ve come sing a little song for us like he did when he visited the Nova cinema in October 2006... To pay tribute to this immensely generous person, the group Oulad Bambara Gnawa of Brussels, musicians that enjoy providing entertainment at weddings for the sheer joy of a good party, will offer a post-screening serenade. Gnawa de Bruxelles is a collective of musicians gnaoua and dakaa under the artistic direction of Rida Stitou, the son of the famous mâalem (master) Abdelwahid Stitou of Tangiers. They’ve created the association Art Folklore Gnaoua in order to preserve their repertory of traditional songs.

http://membres.lycos.fr/ouladbambara/resume.html