Artist and chef Anne Apparu, filmmaker Chris Marker, and author Fredrik Logevall headline CANAPÉ, the monthly news magazine about French cultural events in New York City, for December.  The series is produced by CUNY TV in association with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. 

CANAPÉ airs on Saturday, December 22 at 2 p.m; Thursday, December 27 at 10:30 am, 4:30 pm, and 10:30 pm, and Saturday, December 29 at 2 pm.  It also will be available for viewing online after its broadcast run here.

CUNY TV is cablecast in the five boroughs of New York City on Ch. 75 (Time Warner and Cablevision), Ch. 77 (RCN Cable) and Ch. 30 (Verizon FiOS).

The December 2012 stories are:

Anne Apparu : Food and the Rockaway Relief Effort

Like all great cities, New York is a place of uneasy contradictions – extreme wealth beside extreme poverty, beauty and decadence beside grime and misery. Disasters only intensify those conditions.  For many thousands of people already living on the margins of this society, the impact of Hurricane Sandy has intensified the challenges of basic survival – including things as basic and essential as eating. French artist and chef Anne Apparu had lived for awhile in Rockaway, one of the hardest-hit communities. Following the principle of "mutual aid," she has returned to use her cooking skills to feed her neighbors in need. CANAPÉ visits Rockaway Rescue Alliance and speaks with Anne Apparu and founder Robin Hillman-Harrigan.

Tribute to Chris Marker

There are celebrities. Everyone knows them. Then there are artist’s artists. Few may know their names, but their influence on other artists is immense. Chris Marker, who passed at the age of 91 in July 2012, was the latter. He declined press interviews but maintained a global network of friends. A world traveler, writer, filmmaker, and multimedia artist, he is best known for his brief masterpiece La Jetée (above), from which the Hollywood film 12 Monkeys was derived. CANAPÉ visits the Cinemathèque Francaise in Paris as it renders tribute to a remarkable artist.

“Embers of War” by Fredrik Logevall

Why were we in Vietnam? It’s a question that still haunts the American imagination. The French were there first, most people remember. But why were they there and how did we take over? The new volume by Fredrik Logevall (above), Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam, gives the best overview yet of these questions. The canvas is large and the cast of characters is vast.  Historian Logevall helps CANAPÉ make sense of this epic-tragic story.