Acclaimed director Palcy visits for panel discussion

Legendary director Euzhan Palcy came to campus Nov. 15 for a panel discussion co-sponsored by the Department of Classical and European Studies and Rice’s interdisciplinary Cinema and Media Studies program, housed in the Department of Art History.

Known for her pioneering career, Martinique-born Palcy was the first black woman to direct a major Hollywood film, the apartheid-set “A Dry White Season,” and the first black director to win both a Venice Film Festival award and a César Award, French cinema’s highest honor.

Palcy was in town last week for the Houston Cinema Arts Festival, where she attended the Texas premiere of a new restoration of her seminal 1983 award-winning film “Sugar Cane Alley” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Before the show, she took time to visit Rice for an afternoon of questions and answers with the three Rice professors who hosted the panel: Jacqueline Couti, the Laurence H. Favrot Associate Professor of French Studies; Martin Blumenthal-Barby, associate professor of German studies; and Gordon Hughes, associate professor of art history.

Palcy, who is also notable for being the only woman to direct Marlon Brando, took time to talk shop with Rice students and faculty during a reception following the panel discussion. (Photos by Chi Liang Yu)