Euzhan Palcy

Euzhan Palcy (born in Martinique) is a French film director, screenwriter, and producer.

Her films are known to explore themes of race, gender, and politics, with an emphasis on the perpetuated effects of colonialism.

Shot for less than $1,000,000, it documents life on a Martinique sugar cane plantation in the 1930s through the eyes of a young boy.

Sugar Cane Alley won more than 17 international awards, including the Venice Film Festival Silver Lion, as well as the Coppa Volpi (Volpi Cup) for Best Lead Actress Award (Darling Legitimus).

It also won the prestigious César Award (the French equivalent to an Academy Award) for best first feature film.

Among the firsts, it won the Special Jury Award at the Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival and the first Public Award at the Fespaco pan-African film and television festival.

Palcy soon began her first film, Sugar Cane Alley – an adaptation of Joseph Zobel's 1950 La Rue Cases-Nègres (also translated as Black Shack Alley), a semi-autobiographical novel that explores the struggle for change with shifting race relations.

Palcy has said: "I discovered the novel when I was fourteen. It was the first time I read a novel by a black man, a black of my country, a black who was speaking about poor people."

As she became acquainted with members of the French film community, Palcy received encouragement from New Wave filmmaker François Truffaut and his collaborator Suzanne Shiffman.

She left for Paris in 1975 to earn a master's degree in French literature, in theater, at the Sorbonne, a D.E.A. in Art and Archeology and a film degree (specializing in cinematography) from renowned Louis Lumière College.

It is set in South Africa in 1976 and deals with the subject of apartheid.

She is also the only woman filmmaker to have directed Marlon Brando, whom she brought back to the screen after a gap of nine years.

It was written by Colin Welland and Palcy, based on South African writer André Brink's 1979 novel A Dry White Season.

In 1982, the French government provided partial funding for the film in the form of a grant.

Palcy's first feature film Sugar Cane Alley (1983) received numerous awards including the César Award for Best First Feature Film.

She is the first black director to win a César Award and the Venice Film Festival's Silver Lion, both for Sugar Cane Alley (1983).

In 2022, she was given the Academy Honorary Award for her contributions to cinema.

Euzhan Palcy was born in Martinique, an overseas department and region of France.

Palcy grew up studying the films of Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and Orson Welles.

She decided at the young age of ten to become a filmmaker, largely due to the imprecise depictions of black people in film and television, and her desire for a more accurate portrayal.

She has said: "I'm a mixed blood person, I have African blood, European blood, Asian blood, but the one that I cherish most is the African one, because it is the one that is the most degraded, most insulted on the screen and all walks of life... I understood early on I must take my camera to restore the roots and heal the wounds of history, bring life back."

Euzhan went to college at home in Martinique, and eventually found work at a local TV network.

When she was a teenager, her success as a poet and songwriter led to her being asked to do a weekly poetry program on local television.

It was there she wrote and directed the short film La Messagère, and began her filmmaking career.

The drama, which centers on the relationship between a girl and her grandmother, and which explores the lives of workers on a banana plantation, was the first West Indian production mounted in Martinique.

It was in Paris, with the encouragement of her "French Godfather", François Truffaut that she was able to put together her first feature, Sugar Cane Alley (1983).

After seeing Palcy's work, Robert Redford handpicked her to attend the 1984 Sundance Director's Lab (Sundance Institute), becoming her "American Godfather".

For directing A Dry White Season (1989), she became the first black female director to have a film produced by a major Hollywood studio, MGM.

In 1989, Palcy wrote and directed A Dry White Season, an American drama film directed by her and starring Donald Sutherland, Jürgen Prochnow, Marlon Brando, Janet Suzman, Zakes Mokae and Susan Sarandon.

Impressed by Palcy's commitment to social change, Marlon Brando came out of retirement, agreeing to act in A Dry White Season (1989) for free.

Palcy was also the first black director to direct an actor to an Oscar nomination Also starring in the film were actors Donald Sutherland and Susan Sarandon.

In Palcy's film adaptation of A Dry White Season, the story focuses on the social movements of South Africa and the Soweto riots, and was heralded for putting the politics of apartheid into meaningful human terms.

Palcy was so passionate about creating an accurate story depicting the reality of apartheid that she risked her life traveling undercover to South Africa.

To research the riots, she was introduced to the people of Soweto township by Dr Motlana (Nelson Mandela's and Desmond Tutu's personal physician), while she eluded the South African secret services by posing as a recording artist.

Palcy became the first black female director produced by a major Hollywood studio and is the only black filmmaker who succeeded in making in the U.S. a narrative feature against apartheid on the silver screen during the 27 years of Nelson Mandela's incarceration.

The late Senator Ted Kennedy supported the filmmaker.

Palcy also directed the independent film Siméon (1992).

She has since moved towards directing documentaries and television projects such as Aimé Césaire: A Voice for History (1994).

She then directed the television films Ruby Bridges (1998) and The Killing Yard (2001), as well as the documentary The Journey of the Dissidents (2005) and the miniseries The Brides of Bourbon Island (2007).

Throughout her career, Palcy has explored various genres, often breaking ground being the first female black director to do so.