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Synopsis
What happens when an ambitious young spoken word poet/singer from New York City decides to move to Paris to find her “voice” and love? 



“How to Stay Sane in Paris” is a feature hip hop musical about Lola, an African-American in her late 20’s, whose pursuit of music and love in Paris leads her to find herself. Set in Paris’ multi-ethnic Belleville neighborhood, the film delves into the language of urban music and style to convey the story of Lola’s journey to self-discovery. It also reveals how Lola falls victim to her own naiveté about French culture and the exoticism she attracts as a young African-American woman. 



In order to survive, Lola teaches English to a group of dazed French youth who look to her for meaning in modern hip hop culture. She soon finds that using rap and spoken word to teach them English is enticing. She also tries to break into the Paris jazz scene. But after landing a gig at the Duc des Lombards jazz club, she realizes that her style of music, which melds elements of poetry and rap is unacceptable in the Parisian jazz cafes. 




The characters that she meets keep her on the path to discovery and help her redefine herself. There’s Lola’s landlord, Madame Beaumarchais, a witty old transvestite; Oscar and Hassan Lola’s French-speaking lovers; Fatumata, a West African hairstylist and Josee, a West Indian meter-maid.  



When Lola dates Oscar, a hip French Jazz musician, she realizes that musical competition is sometimes only a thin disguise for a lover not yet ready for an interracial relationship. When she falls for Hassan, a Moroccan mathematician, he confounds her puritanical sensibilities by revealing his former wife in Morocco actually lives in Paris and was never really a former wife. 




Fatumata, the West African hairstylist and Josee, the West Indian meter-maid, are also at a crossroads and looking for love in all the wrong places. Josee feels her family has rejected her due to her mixed race and yearns to find acceptance in the French theater. Her thwarted desires manifest ultimately in her inability to let go of her married lover, Gilles and to allow Djo, an African man from Cameroon, into her life. Fatumata discovers that her husband, who owns the beauty shop, is having an affair. Under the encouragement of the other beauticians and clients, she confronts him, but consequently looses her beauty shop. 



But life moves on! Lola, with the help of the two other women, decides to use jazz, love, and her relationships as a vehicle to transform her poetry into a musical spectacular, which may allow them all to stay sane in Paris and own a piece of the French pie. 


Contact: production@imagequilt.com for more details on the upcoming film.
 
Help us Make this Drama Happen:
To recommend a tax-deductible contribution for HOW TO STAY SANE IN PARIS, click on this link to the New York Foundation for the Arts, which serves as the fiscal sponsor for this project.  There you will find instructions for making a contribution online or by check.

When making a donation (online or by check), please refer to this project as HOW TO STAY SANE N PARIS so that it will be credited correctly.

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