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DRFq"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl ContentHearByl-cZqgyJ bqbBYQ"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH ivtvgj byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span><a class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM ByleLk-gEnFiw iUEiRd ggMZaT cXqSTL eErqIx byle__name-lk button" href="/ntributors/richard-brody">Richard Brody</a></span></span></p></div><time data-ttid="ContentHearPublishDate" dateTime="2018-07-16T16:09:54-04:00" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ContentHearPublishDate-eIBicG iUEiRd kYZrFA kEBrdf">July 16, 2018</time></div></div></div></div><div class="LightboxWrapper-dxsWBV hhylRt"><div class="ContentHearLeadAsset-hGbumP iWPCcH lead-asset ContentHearLeadAssetWrapper-hfXHEc fTrSlG 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kuCzGS"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo iXWezO ptn__text">Amande Gay’s documentary “Ouvrir la Voix” nonts a polil and historil paradox: the illn of lor bldns that’s central to the French natnal self-image.</span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnCred-ejegDm iUEiRd iicloT jbIJNS ptn__cred">Photograph by Enri Bartolucci / Bras Fer Productn</span></div></div></figure><div data-ttid="ContentHearLeadRailAnchor" class="ContentHearLeadRailAnchor-jYVcDc djtEof"></div></div></div></div></hear></div><div data-attribute-verso-pattern="article-body" class="ArticlePageContentBackGround-cNiFNN kbAoLA article-body__ntent"><div class="ActnBarWrapperContent-lasBkU cAHp"><div class="ActnBarWrapperComponent-cjwxLS bEeSLb"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="ActnBarWrapper-dhxmQh kNjTbQ viewport-monor-anchor"><button id="bookmark" aria-label="Save this story" class="ActnBarButton-dyFOZU hQrwCF bookmark large-screen"><span 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23.9508L12.5 19.7312L5 23.9508V2.95081H14V3.93211H6V22.1845L12.5 18.5536L19 22.1845V8.83866H20V23.9508Z"></path><path class="in-bookmark-fill" d="M23 3H20V0H19V3H16V4H19V7H20V4H23V3Z"></path></svg></span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ActnBarButtonText-bYXYuh iUEiRd bkefvo gkccfO">Save this story</span></button></div></div></div><div class="LightboxWrapper-dxsWBV hhylRt"><div class="ArticlePageChunksContent-etcMtP bwyLBj"><div data-ttid="ArticlePageChunks" class="ArticlePageChunks-fLyCVG Uozmo"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg">Not long after <a href=">France beat Croatia</a> the fal match of the <a href=">2018 World Cup</a>, on Sunday, the French soclogist Edgar Mor, who is nety-seven, tweeted that the victory of the team—which is predomantly nonwhe—is an ocsn to celebrate the “one and multicultural” France. “Let’s enjoy the toxitg moments of aterny which won’t last long,” he wrote. Mor’s not jt a soclogist; he’s also the -director, wh Jean Rouch, of one of the ccial films the history of cema, “Chronicle of a Summer,” om 1960, the project <a href=">for which Mor ed a term</a> that proved even more fluential than the movie self: <em>céma véré</em>. That movie, a documentary ma Paris durg the Algerian War, is centered on the psychologil effect of lonialism, racism, anti-Semism, and the legacy of the Nazi Occupatn of France. But Mor’s tweet about France’s soccer-stoked aterny remd me of a more recent film that addrs the untry’s stggle toward acknowledgg s multiculturalism through a visn of sorory: Amande Gay’s documentary “Ouvrir la Voix.” (The tle, which means “openg the voice,” is also a homonym for <em>ouvrir la voie</em>, “openg the path.”) It me out France last October but hasn’t yet been released here, and serv to be seen.</p><p class="paywall">“Ouvrir la Voix” is as radilly ank style as substance: nearly all of s two-hour nng time is filled wh terviews, done extreme closp, wh twenty-four black French women whose remarks Gay aniz thematilly to sixteen chapters. Some were born France, some migrated to France; some are Mlim, some are Christian, one is Jewish; they are of diverse sexual orientatn as well. Though the movie is maly closps, provis, s brief span, the sense of a distant journey that rang far through an unseen France and eply to the liv of people who live there, albe the margs of official culture. The film is not an encyclopedic history or a thumbnail overview of France’s current-day social nflicts; ’s a film of experience and of reflectn, and s first-person narrativ and anecdot are matched by vigoro and cisive discsns of ias, observatns of a diagnostic and analytil bent.</p><p class="paywall">In “Ouvrir la Voix,” some women discs the sual racism that flected their liv sce childhood, both personal and official—schoolyard tnts, school admistrators’ difference and even ntempt, meang advertisements, the tsive attentn of police—and alsos the plethora of stereotyp and clichés about black people that black people France have themselv ternalized. Many of the participants speak of their stggl agast polil and practil equi as a movement of “Aofemism,” bee their experience of femism as black women proved different om—and was risted by—the whe women who domate mastream French femist movements.</p><p class="paywall">Above all, the movie nonts a polil and historil paradox that exerts s distortg force French laws and mor: the illn of lor bldns that’s central to the French natnal self-image. For stance, France keeps no official statistics on the subject of race or relign, orr not to enshre the ncepts law. One speaker says that she ed to agree wh the ia, but then realized that the lack of statistics ma large-sle discrimatn very difficult to prove—France n rely on statistil analys regardg genr but not about race. Jt this month, <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">France’s Natnal Assembly voted unanimoly</a> to elimate the word “race” om the Constutn, orr to validate the legal affirmatn of race as a blogil ncept (there is only one “human race”).</p><div class="Contaer-bkChBi byNLHx"></div><p class="paywall">But the problem, as several women “Ouvrir la Voix” say, is that, even if the term is scientifilly valid, ’s experientially and socially accurate. As one woman says, “The word ‘race’ has to be spoken, bee exists, ’s materialized our liv, our bodi, our perceptns of our bodi, our relatns wh people, so I thk ’s hypocrisy to ban om the Constutn . . . Race is tly a realy.” Another adds, “The word ‘race’ scrib a social realy”; yet another says, “We don’t name thgs bee that way we don’t have to stggle wh them . . . Sayg that race don’t exist France means not wantg to tackle racial problems.” The word “race,” one participant adds, is a ccial tool “to discs our opprsn clearly and ncretely.”</p><p class="paywall">Another word that looms large the film is <em>muntarisme</em>, a bugbear of French polics across the polil spectm. There’s <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">no exact English translatn</a>; refers to a group or muny’s self-intified distctn om French society at large, and, pendg on ntext, n mean “clannishns,” “self-segregatn,” or “separatist.” The avoidance of <em>muntarisme</em> is why <a href=">France don’t keep statistics on race or relign</a>; ’s why the prumptn of lor-bld tegratn a perfectly merocratic French society is upheld as an ial and embodied law. It’s the term ed to cry the very notn of polil anizatn by mory groups French society.</p><p class="paywall">The term <em>muntarisme</em> is nnected wh the French notn of <em>laïcé</em>, “seculary,” and ’s also why France passed, the early two-thoands, strgent laws banng nspicuo relig symbols om ernment facili—a law that, whout sayg so, targeted the headsrv of Mlim women and kept them out of schools. (One woman “Ouvrir la Voix” discs the discrimatn that she faced, as a Mlim, om whe French femists; one of the film’s few ventur to on-lotn reportg volv a public meetg anized by a group ristg discrimatn agast Mlim women the school system.) Yet what many women emphasize the film is that <em>muntarisme</em>, far om beg a self-discrimatg tra of ethnic mori, is the prevailg and unchallenged mo of life for France’s whe people, whose efforts at wispread self-segregatn are what pass for French life at large. As one woman says, “They don’t see themselv as whe”—and therefore n’t be bothered to see black people as black.</p><p class="paywall">The unrlyg nnectn between the women’s observatns is the very ia of visibily. The fear of French thory French immigrants to keep a low public profile, to avoid speakg out or anizg polilly, and the hibns have been passed down to the younger generatns, as many of the film’s participants say. It’s signifint that several of the film’s participants are performg artists, and most of the film’s forays beyond the closp terviews volve stage performanc and rehearsals. Black French men were <a href=">on the world stage durg the World Cup</a>, as they have been every four years for several s; black French women aren’t on that stage—and, for that matter, they haven’t been nspicuo on the French cematic scene, eher. One actrs terviewed acknowledg that the range of rol for black women is narrow and stereotypil; “I feel like I n’t refe rol that I’m offered, bee I eher change jobs or direct my own films,” she says. That is exactly what Gay has done wh “Ouvrir la Voix.” It is both a val film self and a virtual k for the spiratn of other filmmakers; ’s an openg of voic and of paths.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><asi class="PersistentAsiWrapper-VGrR daRVRt persistent-asi" style="posn:absolute;top:to;height:to" data-ttid="PersistentAsiWrapper"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box ArticlePageSplAdRail-OyjwD jikppc"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="ArticlePageSplAdRailContent-jsltpq iZDmmY spl-ad-rail-ntent"><div class="ArticlePageSplAdRailTop-jUrrVY jzzFg"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="y8i8gd"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div><div class="ArticlePageSplAdRailMiddle-tiRvu hiZeZX spl-ad-rail-middle"></div><div class="ArticlePageSplAdRailBottom-dBKMGQ jmCMsn spl-ad-rail-bottom"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="lwd32"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></asi></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 PaywallInleBarrierWhWrapperGrid-fyrGfS kLQIUk grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="body body__le-barrier article__body"><div class="ntaer ntaer--body"><div class="ntaer--body-ner"><asi class="PaywallInleBarrierWrapper-iBnuqk lfXXa-D" data-ttid="PaywallInleBarrierWrapper"><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--paywall-le-barrier" role="prentatn" aria-live="pole" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--paywall-le-barrier"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></asi></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ContentWrapperGrid-fvkmBv brYtrA grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="body body__ntaer"><div class="ntaer ntaer--body"><div class="ntaer--body-ner"></div></div></div></div></div></div></article><div class="ContentFooterWrapper-jVNdRG dTJkpP ArticlePageContentFooterGrid-ccsXYy eMZRHU article-body__footer"><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="ContributorsWrapper-eNpWFu GWFsc ntributors" data-ttid="Contributors"><div class="ContributorBWrapper-bnVHbt gMon"><div class="ContributorBAvatar-bIGTqf eMWbvj"><a href="/ntributors/richard-brody"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW jvZaPI rponsive-asset"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa rponsive-image"><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></picture></span></a></div><div class="ContributorBContent-ubQdr jZTSSi"><div class="ContributorBHear-ledood XOIEx"></div><div class="ContributorBB-fBolsO giFhKz"><a href="/ntributors/richard-brody">Richard Brody</a> began wrg for The New Yorker 1999. 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cLxcNi">Vio</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">The New York Public Library’s Collectn of Weird Objects</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 720w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 480w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The New York Public Library’s Collectn of Weird Objects" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-em__k summary-em__k--isCneVio">A lock of Walt Whman’s hair, Jack Kerouac’s boots, and Virgia Woolf’s ne are jt a few of the ems of lerary paraphernalia available at the New York Public Library's Berg Collectn—if you have an appotment.</div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff hlYhBH summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below-sktop-only summary-em--layout-posn-image-right summary-em--layout-proportns-33-66 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center 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class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl ldWYvC summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Page-Turner</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-4" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">How Much Do Words Matter?</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-4" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span 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