Loan Forgeron, French Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam (5th from right), Marina B. Laker, High Commissioner for Canada to Brunei Darussalam (4th from right) with the organiser Alliance Française and event partner The Collective Art Events and sponsors at the press conference for the upcoming Francophonie Week 2016 held at Alliance Française at Batu Bersurat

In honor of the 2016 ‘Semaine de la Francophonie’ / “Francophone Week 2016”, which is an annual French cultural week run by Alliance Francaise organisations globally as well as the 30th Anniversary of Alliance Francaise being in Brunei, Alliance Francaise Brunei will be launching a one week program of events to run from the 12th of March to the 20th of March that will aim to promote French culture, and celebrate the good cultural relations between France and Brunei.

The week long program will also aim to showcase the capabilities of Brunei’s local talents in terms of creative industries, events and the arts. Because of the network of Alliance Francaise organisations around the world. We hope to showcase to the world the potential of Brunei as a destination and also Bruneians talents.

The event partner: The Collective Art Events (@thecollectiveartevents) and is supported by the Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism, The Embassy of the Republic of France in Brunei Darussalam, the High Commission of Canada, the Switzerland Consulate, The Laotian Embassy, The Vietnam Embassy.

The companies involved are Jerudong Park Playground, Baiduri Bank, Progresif, Cityneon Brunei, Image Inx, Airfrance, Radisson Hotel, Starlodge Hotel, Expressions Music, The Sequence Music Production, Industrie Brunei.

To Book tickets and view information and prices for each event, the public can visit the website hosted by Progresif.

The organisers and head of diplomats sharing their inputs for the upcoming event

Loan Forgeron, French Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam, Shinny of The Collective Art Events, Marina B. Laker, High Commissioner for Canada to Brunei Darussalam and Cecile Cassou, a French journalist and photographer with Benny and Nabil (behind) from City Neon

The French words that will be showcased during Francophonie Week 2016

From the looks of it, Francophonie Week 2016 will be a huge event, even bigger than previous ones with multiple locations involved. Kudos to the parties involved in making this possible.

Loan Forgeron, French Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam, stressed the importance of such event to promote diversification of culture and language of French in Brunei Darussalam. She highlighted how both French culture and language are linked and they can’t be separated. She also thanked all the partners and sponsors of the event and hope for more residents of Brunei to experience the Francophonie Week 2016.

Also present during the press conference was Marina B. Laker, High Commissioner for Canada to Brunei Darussalam. She shared that the Canada is the 2nd biggest donor after France of the Francophonie Week internationally and Canada has a very rich French culture. Canada has always been a strong member in the Francophonie event. Marina also said the event will show many cultural diversification and one of the events she highlighted was the closing ceremony where Melaine Gall, a vocalist from Canada, will be performing.

The movies that will be screened on the huge screen. First movie will be this Saturday entitled Win Win. Click image to see poster.

Outdoor festival event titled “Cine-Cite” (“City-Cinema”)

A three day festival that will transform a location over the opening weekend of Francophonie week with the “Cine-Cite” event. This will be a never before done event concept in Brunei, that combines a unique Franco themed open air night market that showcases local creative businesses, with an outdoor cinema screening a selection of French films selected by the Swiss embassy and Alliance Francaise, and local musicians such as Do It Good Records Preservation Blues Jazz Hall Band and friends, FN DUO, Arif Zainudin, Amal Murni performing throughout the night to supplement.

Each day will feature a changing selection of local vendors, musicians and films, with a special Saturday night showcase by Swiss born musician, Noga along with her French counterpart Patrick Bebey who are cultural envoys of the French Embassy and Alliance Francaise brought in especially for the event.

All to be held at Jubilee Park, Bandar Seri Begawan.

When: 12th March- , 4.30pm -10pm

Activities: Local vendors selling a variety of products from food to crafts

Local artist music showcase

Outdoors cinema of Swiss film Win Win

Photography exhibition for French journalist Cecile Castilla

I shall be posting more actives on the blog along the week for updates. So do stay tune.

The Caffé Verve kiosk at Alliance Française

The library at Alliance Française at the mezzanine floor

The interior of Alliance Française on the ground floor

Love the flat white at Caffè Verve kiosk. They will be opening an actual cafe pretty soon.

 

Group photo of the participants of the 53rd Brunei ITF Junior Circuit 2016 with the committee and tournament referee at the National Tennis Centre. Click image to enlarge.

It’s happening starting today till Sunday, the 53rd Brunei ITF Junior Circuit 2016 at the National Tennis Centre. 64 players are slated for the title in the men’s draw with favourites Shinji Hazawa to take the title. He has the luxury of the draw because there won’t be any Koreans playing in the tournament. The Koreans dominated the tournament back in December 2015 but I am not sure why they are not participating in this tournament.

Public is more than welcome to catch some tennis action at National Tennis Centre. Brunei will be represented by Md Nurul Andi Hambali who has been training in Australia, Timothy Lim and Zen Sii.

Rahul, Arun, Tim and Zen (coached by Aiman Abdullah) taking part in the tournament. Good luck.

Jordan Unger of Australia beat Timothy Lim of Brunei 6-2 6-1 in the first round

Timothy Lim in action against Jordan

Favourite Shinji Hazawa seed No.1 beat Manuel Balce III in straight sets 6-1 6-0