MY FALL OF THE WALL: Berlin-Prag Nov 9-12 1989 /
MA CHUTE DU MUR
- Documentary essay, Video, 5 min., 2001, Les Films de l’Autre
In November 1989, I lived in West-Berlin. On the night of November
9th, the news on tv reveal euphoric East-Berliners crossing the Wall’s
boundary, the guards from the GDR letting them pass without any restrictions.
Friends, families find each other after 28 years of separation. Cries,
screams, laughter! The atmosphere is beyond control but all this happens
in the joy and the ecstasy of the moment. The next morning my friend
and I leave the city in a most chaotic state city for Prag where no
news of the Wall’s opening is announced by the media, the whole
week we are there!
ODE TO A JOURNEY HOME / ÉLOGE DU RETOUR
- Poetic and autobiographical documentary essay, 16 mm, 43 min., 2001,
Les Productions des Films de l’Autre. (Original French with Engl.
subtitles)
Following a long exile, I return to my country of origin. Back to
my roots, I remember… Life took my father away when I was ten.
Five years later, my mother and my brother also die. Aged 21, I left
to discover what they would never get a chance to see. Leaving to
isolate myself, to escape, to flee. Returning fifteen years later,
I travel backwards. Inner movements, I move forwards, the future is
calling. As a tribute to my mother, I myself give life.
This film was shot upon my return to Montreal, my home town, after
an absence of 15 years. The story is real, the film genre, a poetic
essay. It is my own story I tell. My goal was to dig into the personal
to attain the universal. I hope I have achieved this. I dedicated
this film to my native mother(-land). It was made for those who experience
the lost of dear ones, and to let them know that life goes on and
can be good, if one believes in it. It took me a journey home to realize
this.
ONCE UPON A NIGHT / UN JOUR LA NUIT
- Fiction, 3 min., 35 mm., 2003, Les Films de l’Autre
Three minutes in the life of the last three children, survivors of
the final war! A plea for peace.
IKALUKTUUTIAQ IN APRIL
- Documentary essay, 7’’30’., video, 2003. Les Films
de l’Autre
A visual essay on the beauty of the Great Canadian North in springtime,
as well as a portrait of Ikaluktuutiaq (Cambridge Bay) an inuit community
in Nunavut and one of it’s residents, Tanya ‘Tagaq’
Gillis, an amazing solo throat singer who has now toured the world
with Björk and the Kronos Quartet.
Music from the album SINAA by Tagaq.
FAMILY SPIRITS / ESPRITS DE FAMILLE
- Documentary essay about Acadian ancestry, 62 min., video, 2007,
Les Productions des Films de l’Autre Distribution: NFB and
Videographe
Haunted by the spirits of their Acadian ancestors, three members
of a Quebec family of different generations embark upon a voyage
through their lineage. On the road an inquiry is opened. With the
help of their distant cousins, our characters become the investigators
of their own questioning. While the older protagonists connect with
family members in the Maritime provinces of eastern Canada, Zakari,
the young child, imagines his ancestors. Family Spirits, the ghosts
of his ancestors, appear to him and tell him about the significant
moments of their lives. Despite the three and a half centuries that
separate them, a close link is created between the members of the
same family. Narrated by the child, the film wishes to encourage
a reflection on the origins of the French language in America since
its beginning.
FAMILLY SPIRITS deals with identity and collectivity issues. The
francophone society in Canada is constantly searching for a sense
of belonging and the film seeks to answer this quest in a poetic
and playful manner. More than a simple family portrayal, the film
is a voyage through time and space, a pilgrimage and a quest for
origins. But most of all, it is a film about continuity.
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