I've been in the middle of thinking about “They Had A Dream” for the past two weeks. I have to write an article for “Plumes noires de France” (#selfpromo), but as I don't know where to start, I prefer to take my time... My dilemma comes from the fact that this TV movie fulfills the function of bringing to the general public a representation of an ignored story but the way it does doesn't satisfy me at all... And having a vague idea of how difficult it is for this kind of project to see the light of day, I don't want to bring negativity to it just because of my subjectivity and sensitivity... But I want to talk about it anyway. Everything I say here comes from the most utter respect and I’ll leave any feminist consideration for my “PNDF” article. Here, I'll just mention the questions that this TV movie gave me and my hope to see other films contribute to this building representation. In the end, I think that was the goal of its creators.

Living in Guadeloupe in the 60’s

I say it every time I write about mainstream fiction set in Guadeloupe, but it would be nice if the settings would make you go at first glance "it's in Guadeloupe" and not just "oh the pretty postcard that could be in any Caribbean island". “They Had A Dream” was supposed to show the post-World War II/early 60’s era in Guadeloupe. It would have been difficult to multiply different sceneries other than the beaches, the tin hut and the modern houses. It would have required to build up buildings, to have access to renovated historical places, in short, it’d have required a lot of money. Nevertheless, when I look at street pictures on Instagram, there are so many places that have the potential to give a historical visual identity to Guadeloupe... I'm not talking about monuments or symbolic places like the ACTE Memorial which will probably be a must setting from now on. I'm talking about public spaces, living places like streets, schools, market, public transport etc... All these markers of an era that are conveyed through photos and words but too rarely through films. “They Had A Dream” thus gives a glimpse of a way of life for which I have literally no reference.

Being a teenager in Guadeloupe in the 60’s

Blame my habit of K-dramas dedicating 4 to 5 hours out of 16 to develop the characters' childhood and teen years, but I would have loved to see more of how teenagers lived back then. Going to the beach, okay. But what was a teenage party back then? What music were they listening to? What were the debates about fashion trends? Did the civil rights movement in the United States have any influence on their view of society? Did Samuel have any aspirations other than to be a top athlete? What did it mean to a young West Indian boy of the time to have a high school diploma? What did they do after getting their high school diploma? What were the opportunities? I know that wasn't the point of the story, but the question that kept me going throughout the first part was “what was it like to be a West Indian teenager in the 1960s?”. Ever since I read “Au coeur du giraumon” [check out my review here] and saw the Gang des Antillais [check out my review here], I've been dreaming of so many audiovisual references for young Afrocaribbean characters from the 60s... It doesn't matter what time it was, in fact, because Neg' Maron [Episode 6 of my podcast] was more than ten years ago now. I have no idea what my grandparents' youth was like. As far as I know, my grandmother never left the island. They passed away before I had time to ask the question. Did I even have the idea to ask it? For the moment, films either have a historical/political approach or have a totally depoliticized comic approach. My wish would be that people from the Caribbean would be seen as valuable by exploring their humanity. There are many Caribbean people who had to leave their island to survive. There are Caribbean people who have spent their lives on their island. Their youth, their non-French dreams also deserved to be told.

This article was first published on myinsaeng.com on April 9th 2018. You can read the French original version here.

[English review] "They Had A Dream" ou Le Rêve français