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CONVERSATIONS

Conversations were held with guests following 8 of the 2020 Fall Festival films

along with 5 interviews from members of the Labo whose films were selected for the program Courts Toujours! (Shorts)

Joshua Demers and the actors from Québexit

Joshua Demers has 11+ years of diverse experience in the content generation industries, from directing/producing the IPF/Ontario Creates/COGECO-funded interactive digital series, 'Kristal Clear' to directing/co-writing the Telefilm Talent-to-Watch multilingual political comedy 'Québexit'.

Touria Benzari, director TA MÈRE!

Touria Benzari is screenwriter, director and actress. She lives in Dijon (France). Between 2011 and 2014, she wrote and directed three short films on the subject of forced marriage: The Price of the Bride, Rock 'n' Bled and Mariage Blues. These three short films are united in a feature film entitled "Your Mother!" in 2015.

Historian Josette Bouchard-Muller on General De Gaulle

Josette is a consultant in Environment Education and a Lansdscape and Humans Painter. Josette is the recipient of the Governor General's Award for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History.

Martin Villeneuve, director of shorts: Imelda 2 et Imelda 3

Martin Villeneuve is a French Canadian screenwriter, producer, director, actor, and art director. He was nominated at the Canadian Screen Award (formerly Genie Award) in 2013 for Best Adapted Screenplay, for Mars et Avril, his feature film debut, and Quebec's first true science fiction movie. Villeneuve is also the first (and so far, the only), TED speaker to come out of Quebec. He has worked for Cirque du Soleil as an artistic director for commercials and film.

Louis Godbout director of Mont Foster

Louis Godbout is a writer and director living in Montreal. After training in law, he devoted himself to studying philosophy, a subject he taught for fifteen years. In parallel, he continued his writing work, which resulted in the publication of four essays (Du golf : parcours philosophique, Nietzsche et la probité, Hierarchies, Le discours du ressentiment), and eventually turned to screenwriting. His first screenplay, Coda, is produced by Clinamen Films and stars Patrick Stewart and Katie Holmes. Mont Foster is his second screenplay and first director.

Pascal Plante, director of Nadia, Butterfly

A graduate in film production from Concordia University, where he won the Mel Hoppenheim Award, Pascal Plante is now pursuing his career as a director at Némésis Films, a production company he co-founded. Pascal has directed numerous short films, including DRUM DE MARDE! (Slamdance 2016), Blonde with Blue Eyes (Best Canadian Short Film, VIFF 2015), and Nonna (Slamdance 2017). In the fall of 2017, Pascal completed his first feature-length fiction film, a punk romance entitled Les faux tatouages, (Grand Prix Focus Québec/Canada, FNC 2017 + Berlinale 2018).

Nicolas Fay, director of the short film La Clef du sol, on Au nom de la terre

Director, screenwriter, editor. During the Covid confinement he filmed his Limousin village, LE DORAT, population 1700. With only his IPhone he created WEB SERIES "LES RÉSISTANTS".

Joseph Bitamba on Petit Pays

Originally from Burundi, Joseph studied cinema in Belgium, France, Burkina Faso with film diplomas in Bordeaux and Paris.
In 2003, Joseph Bitamba moved to Canada and worked in the direction and scriptwriting of documentaries for TFO, TV5, Radio Canada. In 2011 he becomes an independent producer and directs successful documentaries that lift the veil on Burundi and Rwanda. He is a member of the Labo.
JB tells us about Kigali where he is shooting a documentary on rape as a weapon of war.

5 interviews from members of the Labo whose films were selected for the program Courts Toujours! (Shorts):

TV5 presented Tonie Marshall's Number One in partnership with CINÉFRANCO

If you like your drama and comedy served stone cold and unashamedly smart, you will like Number One very much indeed. (Graeme Tuckett, Stuff.coz.nz)

Emmanuelle Blachey is a brilliant and determined engineer who has risen up through the ranks of her company, a major French energy firm, until sitting on the board of directors. One day, a network of powerful women offer to help her become the head of a CAC 40 firm. She would be the first woman to hold such a position. But in the spheres still largely dominated by men, professional and personal obstacles increase. The conquest seemed thrilling but turns out to be a war.

A debate in French organized by Cinéfranco on the film Numéro Une took place on August 12 at 7:00 p.m. Visit the TV5 website to watch Number One by Tonie Marshall

Marcelle invited a panel of our passionate moviegoers to discuss the film.

From left to right:
Francine Watkins, Marcelle Lean

Nadine Couvreux, Daniel Pokorn

ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE: THIS MOROCCAN CINEMA SO DEAR TO MARCELLE LEAN

Political News from Ontario and the Canadian Francophonie

ONFR+ honours artists and gives them a voice on our social networks during the crisis.

Marcelle Lean, founder and director of Toronto's French-language festival Cinéfranco, had her programming devoted to Moroccan women directors cancelled due to the pandemic. She recommends two little gems of contemporary Maghreb cinema directed by women.

See Marcelle's film recommendations >