Some feet, my foot: A documentary by Fabienne Kanor

Author and Filmmaker Fabienne Kanor

Born in France, of Martinican descent, Fabienne Kanor is the author of four novels, D’Eaux douces (Freshwater), Humus, Les Chiens ne font pas des chats (Dogs are not Cats), and Anticorps (Antibody). Kanor has also made two short films and several documentaries, including C’est qui l’homme? (Is it that man?), winner of the Best Screenplay Award at the Angers Film Festival in 2008. She has worked as a reporter at France 3, Radio Nova (Paris), and International French Radio RFI. She is currently completing her fifth novel and a screenplay for the feature-length film Derrière le morne (Behind the Dismal).

In her work Kanor deals with the burden of collective memory on individual identity, the male/female love/hate saga, West African immigration in Europe, and the slave trade.

Des pieds, mon pied (Some feet, My foot), Kanor’s short, experimental documentary is framed around her quest for a home, for integration—or as a psychologist in the film states, the quest to “lay down…the heavy bags” she is carrying. Des pieds takes the perspective of Kanor’s feet as she tries to find the roots of her past, and her place in the present, with them.

Below, Sampsonia Way exclusively presents the entirety of Des pieds, mon pied with English subtitles.

Kanor´s residence at City of Asylum-Pittsburgh

Every year, since 2007, City of Asylum/Pittsburgh extends an invitation to some of the writers taking part in the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program. After their residency in Iowa, the writers are offered a three month stay in Pittsburgh’s Northside.

This year the writers who will be hosted from November to February are Fabienne Kanor and Marvin Victor, a fiction writer and filmmaker from Haiti.