France / 2016 / 52mins / Biography, Documentary / French and Creole

Nominated several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, for which he was shortlisted in 1992 alongside Derek Walcott, the French Caribbean poet, philosopher and novelist Édouard Glissant wrote major works on cultural hybridity that continue to speak to us today. From New York, where Édouard Glissant was a Distinguished Professor at CUNY for more than 20 years, to Japan, or from Colombia to Tunisia, his concepts, such as the Whole-World, the creolization of cultures or Relation as a new way of bringing together differences remain highly appreciated by a wide range of philosophers and writers. This documentary is a journey through the mind of the Caribbean writer Édouard Glissant. The poet and philosopher of worldwide acclaim talks to us along with writers, scholars and popular figures.

Guillaume Robillard

A native of Guadeloupe, Guillaume Robillard has been developing various audiovisual projects for several years on the socio-cultural realities of the West Indies. Through his projects, he has met many writers of Caribbean literature, including the poet Édouard Glissant, whom he worked and traveled with extensively from 2008 to 2011. He focuses on cultural cross-fertilization and the status of women in West Indian societies. A ten-year project, his documentary, Poétique du Divers, is both a tribute and an invitation to Edouard Glissant’s thought, to which he is very attached. Along with his film projects, he is currently conducting doctoral research on West Indian cinema at the University Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. He was a lecturer at the Sorbonne and has also been a jury member for several film festivals. Learn More