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Title: BON VOYAGE

Reference number: 7517

Date: 2004

Director: d. Kapwani Kiwanga

Sponsor: Scottish Executive, Scottish Screen Lottery Funded, Channel 4 Television

Producer: Jason Hall

Production company: Edinburgh Mediabase

Sound: sound

Colour: col

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 3.00 mins

Description: A visual exploration of labour, Bon Voyage is a portrait of one woman and her workplace: the toilets of Paris' Montparnasse rail station.

[First title on this compilation tape - please note there are two versions, the first is subtitled and the second is original French with no subtitles.]

Shot entirely on location in Montparnasse, the film offers a stark contrast between frenetic comings-and-goings of the Parisian commuters with the solitary, stationary existence of Mme Aubjon. Having travelled all the way from Africa in her youth with the promise of a new life in Paris, this is a portrait of a woman whose great strength and dignity is too frequently overlooked, yet there for all to see in this beautiful film.

Channel 4 commissioned this series of four short films from Scottish film-makers about Paris to celebrate the Entente Cordiale Centenary Celebrations in 2004. See also refs 8100, 8101 and 8102

See also ref 7886 for another film by Kapwani Kiwanga. Kapwani Kiwanga (born 1978) is a Canadian artist working in Paris, France. Her work is known for dealing with issues of colonialism, gender, and the African diaspora.

Credits: Thanks to Mme Folly Abjon, Thomas Renaud, Paulina Eshono, Anias Nectoux

camera Ewan McNicol
sd. rec. Angus McPake
sd. design John Cobban
offline ed. Fiona Reid
online ed. Ian Ballantyne
location services Screen Parts
p. co-ordinator Amber Parsons
p. man. Wendy Griffin
p. Jason Hall
exec. p. Paul Ryan

Part of the Entente Cordiale Centenary Celebrations
www.ententecordialescotland.org.uk

An Edinburgh Mediabase Production. Scottish Executive, Scottish Screen Lottery Funded. © Channel 4 Television Corporation MMIV.