“Madame Cinema” enters the pantheon of Morgian culture

It took courage, in 2010, to take control of the Odéon Cinema, in financial collapse and in poor condition, to such an extent that the Municipality had used the urgency to file a notice in the form of rescue, both financial and furniture.

This is because the City had an intrepid and passionate cinema enthusiast up its sleeve to avoid the scenario of the last screening: Chahnaz Sibaï. Completely unknown in Morges fifteen years ago, here she is today decorated with the cultural distinction, a cockade more generally awarded to an artist rather than to the operator of a commercial SME.

“I am obviously surprised, but also happy, because I have the impression that this award honors cinema through me, which is too often considered entertainment when it is also culture,” says the winner. .

Film buff and boss

Endowed with 4,000 francs, the distinction honors, in the words of the Municipality, “an entire career dedicated to the dissemination of the seventh art in Switzerland, from its beginnings at the Lausanne cinema ticket offices to the promotion of Swiss cinema in Romandie for the ancestor of Cinéforom, the French-speaking Foundation for Cinema.

“As an autodidact, Chahnaz Sibaï saved the Odéon from closure, where she independently promotes cinematographic creation, by regularly organizing screenings with Swiss directors and international artists.”

Member of the Consultative Commission on Cultural Affairs, the one we meet at the cash register, at the refreshment bar or behind her computer at the small table which adjoins the main room almost every evening, is fully invested in this Odéon which she also embodies to give it breath. “Morges gets under my skin and I am keen to keep cinema alive, which despite the fact that it is an art – and therefore a culture – always has a sword of Damocles hanging over its head: profitability .”

A prize for encouragement

The one who also created the Open Air at the Château de Morges and who sticks to the programming of the Book on the Quays at each edition well deserves the title of Madame Cinema. A fragile universe since after the difficult period of Covid, its establishment, like others, “did not succeed in reaching the figures before the pandemic”. But she does not lose her optimism and is delighted with the success of “The Count of Monte Cristo”, “Un p’tit truc en plus” or currently “L’amour ouf”.

And Chahnaz Sibaï will share her laurels a little during the ceremony scheduled for November 28, since the visual artist Anouchka Perez will receive the cultural encouragement prize, also worth 4,000 francs.

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