Educational Media Reviews Online

From the late nineteenth century to the early 20th century, hundreds of thousands of French Canadians left Canada and came to the United States. A large number of them settled in Lewiston, Maine, to work in the textile mills, shoe factories, lumberyards, and other industries. In 1919, the state of Maine passed a law that forbid the speaking of French in the public schools which was part of “naturalizing” immigrants. This law was in effect until 1969. In the 1920’s the Klu Klux Klan burned crosses in Lewiston, targeting the francophones. In the 1990s Somali immigrants came to Lewiston, followed by peoples from other African nations, including French speaking countries such as Rwanda and The Republic of the Congo. The Intersection is a film about the link between the old French and the new French in Lewiston and how discrimination against immigrants is an age old issue. The film focuses on Cecile, the daughter of French-Canadian immigrants who vowed to erase her francophone heritage and Trésor, a refugee from Congo who has settled with his sister in Lewiston.

Cecile speaks about growing up in a French speaking family, how the Catholic church was the center of the community and how she was embarrassed to be francophone. She couldn’t wait to take her husband’s name when she married in order to erase her French identity. Now divorced, she is looking at her French identity in a new light. She attends the French club in town to speak French to African immigrants and help them acclimate to living in Maine. One of her friends talks about growing up and being told by a teacher to speak English, since she was in America now. When the new African immigrants started to arrive in Lewiston, history repeated itself. Residents were afraid and protested against the wave of new people. Cecile says the French speaking Africans helped her be proud of her French heritage. Trésor speaks about feeling lonely in Maine, missing his country and how hard it was to adapt to living there. He and Cecile have become friends through the French club. The film is strongest when it shows this cross-cultural bond through shared experience.

This documentary is available on DVD and also through a streaming license. The streaming access is available for 1, 3 or 5 years or perpetual. The film is in color, is 32 minutes long and is in English, French and Lingala with French and English subtitles. The distributor, Documentary Educational Resources is a top-tier documentary distributor. A minor quibble is the subtitles could have been letterboxed in order to read them better. This film is recommended for courses in U.S. history, sociology, political science, immigration, and current affairs. The Intersection is a film that presents a woman’s story of losing and then finding her identity through the help of new immigrants in her community.

Awards:
Audience Award for Best Short, Camden Int'l Film Festival, USA, 2021; Tourmaline Prize for Best Maine Film Short, Maine Int'l Film Festival, USA, 2022

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