The Pearl Button

The Pearl Button - El botón de nácar

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

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

FIFA 2016: AWARDS

Awards of the 34rd FIFA

The 34th edition of the International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) has ended on Sunday, March 20, 2016. Tthe film La collection qui n’existait pas, by Joachim Olender (Belgium), is the grand winner of the competition.

From March 10 to 20, FIFA offered to festival-goers 170 documentaries from 25 countries, including, for the first time, films from Morocco and the Luxembourg.

The jury of the 34th FIFA

The President of the 34th FIFA international jury:

 Paul Maréchal, art historian, awarded prizes to 13 films from ten countries.

Other members of the jury:

Nathalie Barton, producer of auteur documentaries

Pascal Gélinas, filmmaker

Joseph Hillel, producer and filmmaker

Mariella Pandolfi, professor of anthropology and music lover

The Awards of the 34th FIFA

13 films from 10 countries were awarded prizes.

Two Canadian films were among the award recipients.

Grand Prize

LA COLLECTION QUI N’EXISTAIT PAS

Joachim Olender (Belgium)

Jury Award

ONE MILLION STEPS

Eva Stotz (Germany, Turkey, Netherlands)

Award for Best Educational Film

Ex æquo

LE CERCLE DE KANTOR Adrianna Ksiazek, Iwo Ksiazek (Poland)

VIVA DADA, Régine Abadia (France)

Award for Creativity

SOUNDHUNTERS, A MUSICAL EXPEDITION

Béryl Koltz (Luxembourg, France)

Award for Best Canadian Film

Ex æquo

NOUS AUTRES, LES AUTRES, Jean-Claude Coulbois (Canada)

UN HOMME DE DANSE, Marie Brodeur (Canada)

Award for Best Portrait

HOCKNEY

Randall Wright (United Kingdom)

Award for Best Essay

JUSTE AVANT L’ORAGE

Don Kent (France)

Award for Best Portrait

GIOVANNI SEGANTINI – MAGIE DE LA LUMIÈRE

Christian Labhart (Switzerland)

Award for Best Film for Television

Sponsored by Digital Cut

COCOTTES ET COURTISANES DANS L’OEIL DES PEINTRES

Sandra Paugam (France)

Liliane Stewart Award for Design Arts

Sponsored by the Council for Canadian American Relations

GETTING FRANK GEHRY

Sally Aitken (Australia)

Special Mention

PAOLO VENTURA, VANISHING MAN

Erik Van Empel (Netherlands)

Quebec participation

Among FIFA films international program, several films with Quebec artists stood out and resulted in discussions and popular activities among festival-goers. The public was able to talk with

• Jean-Claude Coulbois, director of Nous autres, les autres (FIFA opening film), and 
• Vincent Warren, the famous dancer, former soloist of the Grands Ballets Canadiens, whose carrier was portrayed in the film by Marie Brodeur Un homme de danse. FIFA closing film)

Both films won ex æquo the Award for tBest Canadian Film.

In addition:

• Several films focused on fashion designers. That included the acclaimed Revealing Marie Saint Pierre | Marie Saint Pierre se révèle by Janice Zolf, with a public discussions with the famous designer.
• The director Étienne Desrosiers gave a master class on the challenges faced in the making of his film on the renowned Quebec architect Roger D’Astous.
• Also, there was a performance of the singer Tomás Jensen, following the screening of the film about this musician by Martin Bourgault Retour.

For more information on Art FIFA, visit the Art FIFA website.

FIFA 2016: Caravaggio

Caravage

Film by Jean-Michel Meurice

France | French | 2015 | 52 min

CANADIAN PREMIERE

The film presents the short and tortuous life of the Italian late Renaissance painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, simply known as Caravaggio (Caravage in French). He trained as a painter in Milan under Simone Peterzano who in turn had trained under Titian.

In 1600, in his twenties, Caravaggio moved to Rome, and conquered the Rome’s art scene with his first public commissions, the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew and Calling of Saint Matthew. After that he never lacked commissions or patrons but handled his success poorly. He often engaging in street brawls, and in 1606 killed a man, most likely unintentionally. After that he escaped to Naples, and later to Malta. But he did not stay long in Malta.  He once again participated in a brawl, and regardless of the great success he had with his commissioned paintings, landed in a prison, from which he managed to escape. His life was not too long after that.

The film describes all the twists and turns of this very talented young artist’s life. It shows many of his painting and gives details of who commissioned them and when. It draws a parallel between the brutal biblical scenes he immortalized in his canvas and his own life path.

Official Synopses: 

"The life of Caravaggio (1571-1610) was brief and violent. After ten years of triumphs in Rome, lucrative commissions from powerful sources, a dangerous attraction to the lowest depths of society, endless quarrels, several imprisonments, a death sentence for murder and a forced exile on the run, this quick-tempered and irascible man died at the age of 39. His oeuvre as we know it today stems from the tireless work of historians. Of the more than 500 canvases attributed to him three centuries after his death, less than fifty were actually his. This film investigates 22 major works in Rome, Malta, Paris, Rouen and Montpellier."

Jean-Michel Meurice

Jean-Michel Meurice is a painter and filmmaker. He is a co-founder of ARTE, which he directed from 1986 to 1989. He is also a producer, author and director of monthly magazines devoted to the plastic arts on French television.

Filmography | Simon Hantaï, les silences rétiniens (1978) ; Pierre Soulages (1981), 1er FIFA ; Bram van Velde (1980), 20e FIFA ; Cory Aquino (1989) ; Solidarnosc (1990) ; Apartheid (1992) ; La parade des saigneurs (1995) ; Familles macabres (1996) ; Un doux rebelle : Julien Green, journal d'un siècle (1997), 17e FIFA ; L'orchestre noir (1998) ; Alechinsky pris sur le vif (2004) ; Velickovic, les apparences de la peur (2005), 24e FIFA ; Le vrai pouvoir du Vatican (2010) ; Algérie, notre histoire (2011).

Production Team:

Cinematography Valentin Caron
Music Gérard Cohen-Tannugi
Narration Philippe Faure, Anna Flori-Lamour
Participation Sybille Ebert-Schifferer, Michel Laclotte, Michel Hilaire
Artists Le Caravage, Sybille Ebert-Schifferer, Michel Laclotte, Michel Hilaire
Producer Fabienne Servan Schreiber, Laurence Miller, Emélie De Jong
Production ARTE France, Cinétévé
Distribution Poorhouse International

For more information and film scheduling, visit the Art FIFA website.

Film Screenings:

Sunday March 13 | 12:30 PM | Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal - Auditorium Maxwell-Cummings 

  

Sunday March 20 | 10:30 AM | Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal - Auditorium Maxwell-Cummings 

FILM TRAILER

FIFA 2016: Chagall, peintre de la musique

Chagall, peintre de la musique

Film by Mathilde Deschamps Lotthé

France | French | 2015 | 53 min

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

This film, full of colour and music, is wonderful to watch. It presents life and work of Marc Chagall in a comprehensive and sensitive way. An early modernist, he was associated with several major artistic styles and created works in virtually every artistic medium, including painting, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, costume designs, ceramic, tapestries, and fine art prints. He produced windows for the cathedrals of Reims and Metz, windows for the UN, and the Jerusalem Windows in Israel. He also did large-scale paintings, including part of the ceiling of the Paris Opéra (see the photo above, click to enlarge).

Film shows convincingly how important was music for Chagall, and how music leitmotivs ran throughout his creations. It contains many photographs, several film clippings with Chagall commenting about his art, and many interviews with the art expects and those who preserve his works. His granddaughter also appears in the film.

Chagall's poetic, figurative style made him one of the most popular modern artists. His long life and the variety of his artistic output made him one of the most internationally recognized.

Official Synopses: 

"When we think of the Russian-French artist Marc Chagall (1887-1985), what comes to mind are pairs of lovers in the sky, colourful bouquets and dreamlike representations of transformed reality. What is less known is that Chagall had a a close relationship with music, a passion that came from a childhood steeped in Klezmer music and liturgical psalms. This film shows how this passion was expressed in his work, from his recurring representations of musical instruments to his sets and costumes for opera and ballet."

Mathilde Deschamps Lotthé

Mathilde Deschamps Lotthé makes human-interest documentaries, specializing over the last decade in subjects relating to heritage and the arts.
  

Filmography | Passion patrimoine : De l'Auvergne à la Lorraine (2011) et De l'Auvergne à l'Alsace (2012), émission Des Racines et des ailes ; Sur les pas de Mozart (2012) ; Picasso et les photographes (2013).

Production Team:

Screenplay Mathilde Deschamps Lotthé
Cinematography Franck Carimalo, Jennifer Luby
Sound Bruno Diego
Artists Marc Chagall
Production avec la participation de France 5, Eclectic Production
Distribution Eclectic Production

For more information and film scheduling, visit the Art FIFA website.

Film Screenings:

Friday March 11 | 12:30 PM | Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal - Auditorium Maxwell-Cummings   

Sunday March 20 | 3:00 PM | Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal - Auditorium Maxwell-Cummings

FILM TRAILER

FIFA 2016: Viva DADA

Viva Dada

Film by Régine Abadia

France | French | 2015 | 52 min

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

If you would like to discover the DADA movement or simply learn more about it, this is the film to see. It goes into depth of what it was all about, of its raison d'etre, the artistic issues it addressed, and the social and political realities of the time that provoked its birth and sustained its argumentation.

DADA movement was active for only 7 years, between 1916-1923. Yet it had a serious impact on the arts at large, on the philosophical and social issues it addressed through its nihilism, deconstruction of the standard perceptions, and through making collages and word assemblages that at once negated the reality as it was known, presented the absurdity of what was happening around them, commented on the standard human existence at large, and served as a new aesthetics of how to see the world and make art.  

The film portrays the leaders of the movement, documents the Dada activities which included public gatherings, demonstrations, publication of their manifestos as well as art and literary journals. It also points out that DADA type of thinking still persists and influences contemporary artists.


Official Synopses:

"In 1916, artists from across Europe came together around a pacifist ideal, calling themselves the Dadaists. This international, controversial artistic and literary movement would revolutionize art in the twentieth century. One hundred years later, this film allows the voices of the Dadaists - Tristan Tzara, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, Jean Arp and Man Ray - to be heard again, as subversive as ever. It also follows the completion of one of Tzara's major unfinished projects: Dadaglobe, a compendium and a genuine work of art. 

If you want to discover more about the Dadaists and celebrate the centenary of the movement, you can visit the interactive website, digital cabaret, www.dada-data.net."

Régine Abadia

Régine Abadia makes feature films and documentaries, as well as being a scriptwriter and photographer.

Filmography | The Spirit of Gospel (2008) ; Pigalle nuit et jour (2000) ; Dalida, chez nous soyez reine (2002) ; Pourquoi marcher quand on peut rouler ? (2003) ; Berit (2006) ;  Jenny Bel’air (2008) ; Yasmina et Mohammed (2012).

Production Team:

Screenplay Régine Abadia
Cinematography Dominique Colin, Dominique Fausset
Sound Jean-François Mabire, Romain Parrault, Jules Evrard
Editing Vincent Schmitt, Joseph Licidé
Music Margarida Guia
Narration Françoise Cadol
Animation Ricardo Kump
Graphic creation Ricardo Kump
Artists Tristan Tzara, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, Jean Arp, Man Ray, Max Ernst, Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Höch, Hugo Ball
Producer Sophie Parrault
Production Bonne Pioche, Centre Pompidou, ARTE France
Distribution Lucky You

For more information and film scheduling, visit the Art FIFA website.

Film Screenings:

Thursday March 17 | 10:30 AM | Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal - Auditorium Maxwell-Cummings   

Friday March 18 | 3:00 PM | Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal - Auditorium Maxwell-Cummings

FILM TRAILER

FIFA 2016: Picasso, Making of the Icon

Picasso, naissance d'une icône
The Making of the Icon

Film by Hopi Lebel 

France | French | subtitled English | 2015 | 54 min

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

This film brings to life Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973) who is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century. He was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and stage designer who spent most of his life in France. He is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, and also for the wide variety of styles that he helped to develop and explore.

Among Picasso’s  most famous works are Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), and Guernica (1937) which  portrays the Bombing of the Basque town Guernica by the German and Italian air forces at the request of the Spanish nationalist government during the Spanish Civil War. Both masterpieces are discussed in the film.

The film exams the artist’s life, presents many photographs and video clips of his public appearances and from his private life, and attempts to uncover how Picasso conquered the imagination of people not only with his art but also with his personality and self-promotion. Yet no replicable formula of his success was uncovered. He was a very unique man. No one could replicate his success by following his example in attempting to achieve fame and artistic recognition as Picasso did. And this comes out loud and clear in the film.

Official Synopses:

“Picasso is a towering figure in contemporary art and in contemporary mindsets, not only because of his boundless creativity, but because of his innate talent for communication. His need to nurture his own public image became evident and essential to him very early on. Intercut with previously unreleased archival material and interviews with specialists and those who knew him, this film sheds new light on how the most famous painter in the world was able to mould his own legend and become the universal embodiment of the creative genius.”

Hopi Lebel

After studies in art history and philosophy, Hopi Lebel became a writer-director. All of his films have been shown on French television.

Filmography | Helsinki (2000) ; Goa (2001) ; Francis Picabia (2002), 21e FIFA ; Vuillard (2003), 22e FIFA ; Avec Vincent Lindon (2002) ;  Qui a tué dada ? (2005), 24e FIFA ; Clint Eastwood (2007), 26e FIFA, coréal. Michael Wilson ; Édouard Manet, une inquiétante étrangeté (2011), 30e FIFA.

Production Team:

Screenplay Stéphane Guéguan, Hopi Lebel

Cinematography Denis Gaubert
Editing Marine Benveniste
Music Manuel Peskine
Participation Olivier Widmaier Picasso, Jeff Koons, Maya Widmaier Picasso, Diana Widmaier Picasso, John Richardson, Guy Scarpetta, Didier Ottinger, Glenn D. Lowry, Nathalie Heinich, Philippe Dagen, Émilie Bouvard, Stéphane Guéguan
Artists Pablo Picasso, Olivier Widmaier-Picasso, Jeff Koons, Maya Widmaier Picasso, Diana Widmaier Picasso, John Richardson, Guy Scarpetta, Didier Ottinger, Glenn D. Lowry, Nathalie Heinich, Philippe Dagen, Émilie Bouvard, Stéphane Guéguan
Producer Sylvie Cazin
Production INA, Welcome, RMN-Grand Palais
Distribution INA

For more information and film scheduling, visit the Art FIFA website.

Film Screenings:

Friday March 18 | 5:00 PM | Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal - Auditorium Maxwell-Cummings  

Sunday March 20 | 12:30 PM | Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal - Auditorium Maxwell-Cummings 

FILM TRAILER