(Rouyn-Noranda) A log cabin overlooking a lake in the middle of the forest. This is the picture I had of Abitibi-Témiscamingue. And one of the images – pardon the cliché – that I will remember from the 42nd Festival du cinéma international en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (FCIAT), which ends on Thursday.
Published at 1:05 am. Updated at 7:15 a.m.
Thanks to La Watch, the professional arm of the FCIAT led by Danny Lennon, young short filmmakers were able to meet, listen to and discuss with established artists of Quebec cinema in an informal and relaxed atmosphere – sofas, beanbags, beer in The Fridge – promotes dialogue and trust.
A magnificent chalet on the banks of a lake, in the forest, a portrait of Richard Desjardins on the wall (!) and open and stimulating conversations around the fireplace. With actors (Martin Dubreuil, Larissa Corriveau), producers (Guillaume Lspérance, Sylvain Corbeil), screenwriters and directors (Robin Aubert, Miryam Bouchard, Pascal Plante, Mariloup Wolfe, Denis Côté, Vincent Biron, Ariane Louis-Seize, Erik K. Boulianne etc.), without forgetting the Oscar-winning artistic director of Dune, Patrice Vermette.
Far from a polite masterclass or traditional press conference, we were in for generous, open discussions about the background of the profession, with agreements, disagreements and an irresistible response song (courtesy of Robin Aubert) and some more inevitable gnashing of teeth.
Anyone could intervene at any time to question a more or less widespread practice on film sets – directing with a lot or very little information, starting with a long shot or not, etc. – criticizes the practices in the industry, including the , which are advocated by his colleagues sitting here at the dinner table…
A fascinating time-lapse film course spread over two days, coupled with an unadulterated survey of Quebec cinema, undoubtedly inspired by the feeling of being among yourself, in a welcoming and bright chalet in the Abitibi forest.
This intimacy, this familiarity, is one of the advantages of the Abitibi-Témiscamingue International Cinema Festival, which, although it does not attract films as eagerly awaited as the Festival du nouveau cinéma or Cinemania, creates the ideal conditions for meaningful encounters.
PHOTO LOUIS JALBERT, PROVIDED BY LOUIS JALBERT
Cinema professionals gathered last weekend in a log cabin in Abititbi-Témiscamingue. They had generous discussions about the seventh art.
The exceptional hospitality of the FCIAT team and its volunteers – another cliché that is confirmed – is undoubtedly an element that explains the longevity and success of the festival. “We see the volunteers aging with us. Several were there from the beginning,” Jacques Matte, one of the three co-founders of the event along with Louis Dallaire and Guy Parent, told me.
They live up to their reputation. Guests are literally looked after by these volunteers as soon as they arrive at the airport. As a guest at the annual FCIAT brunch, masterfully directed by filmmaker and cinema professor Martin Guérin, Charles-Olivier Michaud explained that Rouyn-Noranda had nothing to envy Cannes in terms of the reception of his guests. He’s not wrong.
PHOTO LOUIS JALBERT, PROVIDED BY LOUIS JALBERT
Discussion between director Charles-Olivier Michaud and author Kim Thúy, moderated by Martin Guérin
Michaud (Snow and Ash, Anna) was there on Sunday to talk to author Kim Thúy about the adaptation he produced of the successful novel “Ru”, a mixture of “La guerre des tuques” and “Apocalypse Now”, as he says. “That’s it! “ shouted Kim Thúy to a crowded conference room.
“I wanted to capture the beauty of the very banal and create visual poetry that is both close and far from the book,” added Charles-Olivier Michaud about adapting this novel, which reads “like a photo book.”
Kim Thúy, who has a unique talent for recognizing this poetry of everyday life, said that upon arriving in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, a festival volunteer, driver manager Roger Beaulieu, noticed that they were crossing a “cloud of snow” on the road. “Maybe Roger didn’t know it was poetry!” »
The inevitably lively and funny, but also moving exchange between the filmmaker and the author aroused in us a great desire to discover “Ru”, which is scheduled to be released in cinemas on November 24th. Unfortunately, the film was not presented to the public at Rouyn-Noranda, a strategic decision by the distributor that I find regrettable.
The 42nd FCIAT was unique in that it offered a meeting with artisans without the film that served as an excuse for their presence. And that, on the contrary, it presented in the opening film a biographical film that could not be more conventional, L’abbé Pierre: une vie de Combats by Frédéric Tellier, in the absence of its director and its main actors Benjamin Lavernhe (excellent) and Emmanuelle Bercot, herself a renowned filmmaker.
More dour and academic films that never end, I’ve often seen them at the opening of a film festival. Whether in Cannes, where Abbé Pierre: A Life of Combat celebrated its world premiere, in Berlin, Venice or Toronto. We won’t make a big deal about it.
There was also no shortage of guests at the 42nd FCIAT. In addition to the above-mentioned Quebec artisans, in Abitibi I met the French Olivier Babinet, director of the touching apprentice film “Normale” with Benoit Poelvoorde and Justine Lacroix, as well as the Belgian-Kurdish Sahim Omar Kalifa, who came to introduce Baghdad to Messi. about a young Iraqi whose leg was amputated during the American occupation (a film that has particular resonance in the context of the Gaza bombings).
My favorite of the films I discovered in Rouyn-Noranda? An absolutely enchanting Quebec short film, Chat mort, from Témiscabitibiens Annie-Claude Caron and Danick Audet, winner of the Best Short Fiction Award at the last Tribeca Festival. The story, as the name suggests, is about a dead cat and the parents’ (Pierre-Yves Cardinal and Léane Labrèche-Dor) incredible strategies for not telling their little daughter (Lilas-Rose Cantin).
“I’m of festival age. “My passion for cinema was born here when I was four years old, listening to André Melançon talk about the War of the Tuques,” explained filmmaker Annie-Claude Caron, whose father and uncle volunteered at the opening night , on opening night. FCIAT. This celebration, she added, is a family mover.
We are welcomed there like family. This is the main image that will stay with me from this short stay in Rouyn-Noranda. You excuse the cliché again.