Film Forum

Villa Albertine, a new French institution for arts and ideas in the United States, builds on the bold and innovative programs that have been the hallmark of the French cultural network abroad for more than a century. Created by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, and supported by the French Ministry of Culture, Villa Albertine offers a novel artists’ residency model in which residents choose the location best suited to their work within the host country. With a permanent presence in 10 major US cities, it aims to foster in-depth exploratory residencies for artists, thinkers, and culture professionals hailing from all creative disciplines. In its inaugural year, Villa Albertine will host 80 residents for one- to three-month customized residencies.

Farah Clémentine Dramani-Issifou is a 2024 Villa Albertine resident. She will be in residence in Boston in the Spring 2024 to work on her project, Restoring African Film Heritage, which aims to create a space for research and curatorial experimentation around questions related to the restitution of African film archives from the 1980s onward, while devising the conditions for the return and circulation of this heritage on the continent. For the past decade, Farah Clémentine Dramani-Issifou has been a film festival programmer (Critics’ Week, Marrakech International Film Festival, Villa Medici Film Festival, Fespaco, Doxa) and a curator for various exhibitions, including Un.e air.e de famille (2021); Tofodji, in the footsteps of our ancestors (2022); and Afrotropes – des imaginaires de l'Atlantique noir (2024). In 2023, she was made a Knight of the Order of Merit in Arts, Letters, and Communication by the government of Burkina Faso. She is currently a Harvard visiting scholar and Harvard Film Study Center associated fellow for the 2023-2024 academic year.