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Maxime Jean-Baptiste
Maxime Jean-Baptiste (1993), based between Brussels and Paris, grew up in the context of the Guyanese and West Indian diaspora in France. As a filmmaker, he delves into the complexity of Western colonial history by detecting the survival of past traumas in the present. His audiovisual and performance work focuses on archives and forms of re-enactment as a perspective for conceiving a living, embodied memory. Nou voix (2018) received the Jury Prize at the Festival des Cinémas Différents et Expérimentaux in Paris. Listen to the beat of our images (2021), co-directed with his sister Audrey, was selected for CPH:DOX, Hotdocs, ISFF Clermont-Ferrand, IDFA and many other festivals. Moune Ô (2022) was presented at the Berlinale Forum and at True/False in the US. Kouté vwa (2024) is his debut feature film which premiered at the 77th edition of Locarno Film Festival and received the Special Jury Prize as well as the special mention from the First Feature Awards.
Melrick, a thirteen-year-old boy, spends his summer vacation with his grandmother Nicole in Cayenne, Guyana. His desire to learn to play the drum brings back the specter of Lucas, his uncle, also a drummer, who died in tragic conditions eleven years earlier.