Documentary Feature Film
Debs Studio tells the story of Henri Debs and how he developed the music industry in the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique.
IN-PERSON SCREENING
Saturday, January 13, 2024
Session 4 – 4:00 PM
VIRTUAL SCREENING
January 14 – February 13, 2024
CREDITS
Director: Miguel OCTAVE
Writer: Miguel OCTAVE
Producer: Frederic TYRODE SAINT LOUIS
Producer: Henri Charbel DEBS
Genre: Music, Bio Pic
Country: France
Language: French
Run Time: 52 mins.
Contact: [email protected]
CAST
Henri DEBS
Max SEVERIN
Thiery FANFANT
Yves HONORE
Jean DEBS
Director Biography
Miguel OCTAVE
Miguel Octave is from Martinique but based in Paris, France and has been a director since 2005 both on national projects and Caribbean productions. The details of his extended experience – would it be in television or cinema – can be found on his website: https://www.migueloctave.com/realisations
Director Statement
“I am a director from the French West Indies. I’ve been working for television for the past 25 years. Being passionate about music and also a collector, I have made the choice to take my career on that path. I have had the opportunity to work on musical programs with famous national and international artists. I have always been fascinated by the ways artists work is promoted beyond a much more complex and tormented personality than the image displayed in the media. I became frustrated to realize our Caribbean artistic figures were often missing in the programs despite being a region of great cultural mingling.
Telling about Debs Studio involves telling the history of the music industry in Guadeloupe – where the Debs family comes from, but also in Martinique, Haiti, Porto Rico and the rest of the Caribbean. As usual in my documentaries, I let people tell the story, trying to intersect the information as we come from an oral culture where story telling is how we hand down knowledge. Throughout the documentary, music is obviously ubiquitous along the interviews, testimonies, radio files and comments giving even information never disclosed before. Editing this project during the pandemic lock down was quite a challenge as the team was in different locations. “