French language and culture
on the shores of Lake Champlain

French Book Swap

Refresh your collection of French-language books!  Come to the French Book Swap!

Burlington Social Hour

Our longest-running monthly social hour, on the last Friday of every month.  

Croissants et Conversation

A social hour for novice French speakers!  

VTIFF: "Dao" (2026)

Director: Alain Gomis
Countries of filming: Senegal, France, Guinea-Bissau
Release year: 2026
Run time: 185 min
Languages: French, Wolof, Manjak, and Portuguese Creole w/ subtitles

This sprawling epic is an inquiry into diaspora. Gloria (Katy Correa) and her biracial daughter Nour (D’Johé Kouadio) are an African immigrant duo living in France. Two family ceremonies anchor the film: the festive wedding of Nour, held in the suburbs of Paris, and the traditional funerary rites for Gloria’s father, held in Guinea-Bissau. Two heritages and two ceremonies: the film moves back and forth between them, as we encounter Gloria and Nour with their large extended family on two continents, unfolding their joys, heartaches, and blessings. It’s an unconventional film. Apart from the two ceremonies, the plot is minimal. The film meanders, free form, for 3 hours and 5 minutes. You won’t mind. The Franco-Senegalese filmmaker Alain Gomis builds bridges between continents, between ancestors and descendants, between past and present, between spirit and nature, between life and death. The film speeds and slows reflecting the rhythms of life. 

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Cross-Border: "Two Tents"

Written and directed by Stanstead playwright Ross Murray, the comedy features performers from both sides of the border and benefits this shared Vermont–Québec cultural institution. Tickets are $25; youth tickets are $10.

VTIFF: "Jail Time Records" (2026)

Directed by Dione Roach and Steve Happi
Cameroon, USA| 2026 | Documentary | 94 min | French w/ subtitles

Douala’s New Bell Central Prison in Cameroon is a brutal prison, built for 800 men but now houses more than 6,000. The inmates stage musical interludes that turn their confinement into an artistic statements of rage and passion. In 2018, prisoners including Dione Roach and Steve Happi decided to establish a recording studio there, which became the first permanent recording studio in an African prison. Here musicians could record performances of their work. Out of that studio emerged Jail Time Records, a nonprofit record label that produces and releases work by artists incarcerated and formerly incarcerated in Cameroon’s prisons. 

Over the years Jail Time  has grown into a collective of musicians, producers and filmmakers and become a space of respect, creativity, purpose. Hundreds of artists have used the studio, creating thousands of songs spanning afro, hip-hop, R&B, traditional music, and gospel. The film immerses us in prison life, profiling incarcerated artists Stone, Empereur, and Transporteur as they create raw, impactful hip-hop. For artists living in confinement, music becomes a way to keep creating, resisting and believing in a second chance. Jail Time Records not only identifies and promotes talent, it gives them practical tools to aid their reintegration into society. It transforms lives through creativity, amplifying unheard voices and building pathways to change. 

Today, Jail Time Records operates as a multimedia record label and cultural platform not only for incarcerated people but for marginalized and underserved communities generally. Jail Time Records has also opened a second recording studio in Douala  outside the prison, to help  formerly incarcerated artists reintegrate into community life. Beyond Douala, it created a a production space and visual arts center inside Ngoma prison in Cameroon and has opened a recording studio inside MACO prison in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. 

The film won three awards at the 2026 Tribeca Festival: Best Documentary Feature, Best Cinematography in a Documentary Feature, and the Albert Maysles Award for Best New Documentary Director.