by Patricio Guzman The film was screened in the main competition section of the
65th Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Silver Bear for Best
Script. It received Les Lumières Award and the Golden Horse of Taïpeh Film Festival,
it went to many festivals in Mumbaï, in London,
Busan, San Sebastian, Moscow,
Sydney, Athens,
Istamboul and Jérusalem. In Canada,
it was screened in Vancouver
at the VIFF and in Toronto at the TIFF. This is a poetic and yet an
extremely haunting documentary that examines Chilean history and the genocide of
the entire ingenious population of Patagonia.
The film-maker compares the fate of those indigenous people with Chileans who disappeared during the Pinochet regime. He links these two unlikely
themes through the poetic images of water that washes the Chile's 4,270 km (2,653 miles) long coastline. The film claims water has memory, and attempts to prove it visually through the succession of images.
What becomes evident though, it is not water that is the principal player or connector in all those numerous human tragedies, nor is the water's supposed recording of those tragedies really the main concern. The water imagery only serves as a powerful backdrop to all the events. But the ultimate culprit is the inherent cruelty and greed that runs through human nature, and which is very prominent in our modern civilisation. Water is just a neutral bystander to all the horrid events, in the same way as many people were only bystanders to all those cruelties discussed and portrayed in the film at the time they were taking place.
Initial release:October 2015 (France)
Director:Patricio Guzmán
Story by:Patricio Guzmán
Producer:Renate Sachse
Music composed by:Hughes Maréchal,Miguel Miranda,Jose Miguel Tobar
Nominations:César Award for Best Documentary
The film will open on April 29th with English subtitles at Cinéma du Parc, at Vancity Theatre in Vancouver and Bell Lightbox in Toronto. FILM TRAILER
Before the Streets - Avant les rues Film by Chloé Leriche
Canada / 2016 / Atikamekw, French / 98 min
This is Chloé Leriche's first feature-length film. The film had a World Premiere at the 66th Berlinale in the Generation section - competition. Before the Streets was also a closing film at the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois film festival 2016. The story line is simple: Shawnouk, a young aboriginal man, is involved in a serious crime. After escaping into the
forest, he returns to his community and tries healing through traditional
native rituals.Before the Streets features
non-professional Atikamekw actors who perform in their own language, and in the
authenticity of their village.
The film shows the revival of native culture and its traditions. It is the first dramatic feature shot in the native language of Atikamekw. It has a cast composed almost entirely of non-professional actors who live and work in the villages where the film was shot. The story takes place in Manawan, while a forest fire closes in on the nearby village of Wemotaci.
Although the film portrays a sort of "happy ending" to the conflict, a number of questions remain unresolved. Was the main hero truly healed through his brief séjour at the secluded wood grounds where native cleansing rituals were performed?How living with his secrecy would affect the rest of Shawnouk's life? What if the person killed was a native with a surviving family living at the same village as Shawnouk, would the film still conclude in a "happy ending"? Were this to happen in any other community, his father's protective involvement would have been considered a gross conflict of interest with serious subsequence, but not in this film. Is it OK for the native members to take the law into their own hands? Going beyond this film, is it OK for any Canadian professionals or communities to take the law either into their hands or how it might be interpreted by their traditional customs and believes, or even because of the family ties?
Screenplay: Chloé Leriche
Principal
Cast: Rykko Bellemare, Kwena Bellemare-Boivin,
Jacques Newashish, Janis Ottawa, Martin Dubreuil
Production:Les Films de l'Autre, Montréal
Festivals:Berlin, 2016
Chloé
Leriche:
Chloé Leriche is a self-taught writer, director, and editor who has produced a dozen
short films since 2001; her work has won several international film festival
awards. She worked for Wapikoni Mobile, encouraging young
people from different native tribes in Québec and Ontario to express themselves through cinema.Chloé Leriche has previousely written, directed, edited and
produced several short films. Her work was screened in international film
festivals. Her film Fragments ou lettre à un allemand (dont je suis amoureuse en secret)won the Creation Prize at
VideoFormes (France) in 2004.Les grands(The Schoolyard) was selected at the Toronto
International Film Festival, and revealed as one of the Top Ten Best Canadian
short films of 2007.
The film will be released all over Quebec on April 15th, 2016. FILM TRAILER
