Sweet irony for the 25th anniversary of the short film evenings Prends ça court! : the founder, Danny Lennon, who has always distinguished himself against the tide of institutions, received an invitation from the Cinémathèque française, temple of the seventh art par excellence, to present a program of Quebec films on Monday.
The event will be followed by an ambitious world tour. “I have confirmed 94 cities and over 50 countries so far, but new destinations are being added every day. I think I’m going to stop at 100,” Danny Lennon proudly said on Saturday on the phone, returning from the Cannes Film Festival.
“The Cinémathèque française is the only more traditional place where I have agreed to program,” he explains. For the rest, I always wanted to take our artists off the beaten track. »
This is how this great smuggler of local cinema, who embraces his “little runner of the woods side”, will take short films from Kenya to Mongolia, via New Zealand and Madagascar, always changing the titles depending on the destinations. He even launched a film club on the beach of Diani, in Kenya, where he would present films from Quebec every month.
Those that will be screened in Paris reflect the full diversity of Quebec production over the past year, between experimental cinema, comedy, documentary and animation. The films are: Have a child by Éric K. Boulianne, Cold and Dark by Peter Hosták, A hole in the chest by Alexandra Myotte and Jean-Sébastien Hamel, Summer 2000 by Virginie Nolin and Laurence Olivier, dead cat Annie-Claude Caron and Danick Audet, and Fuck You I’m Millwall by Romain Dumont.
Festive atmosphere
Take it short! was first founded as a cabaret where the best of local short films were celebrated. The name was also intended to be a snub to events of the genre which accumulated dubious puns with “short”.
“We had some very good festivals at the time, among the best in the world,” says Danny Lennon. But they did not allow real meetings between the artists. I wanted to remedy that. From the first evening at the Monument-National, I felt a real enthusiasm, and I never wanted to stop. »
Marcel Jean, the current director of the Cinémathèque québécoise, noted, in an article published in 2009 in the magazine 24 Images, the festive atmosphere that reigned during these events: “The large and colorful crowd, largely made up of regulars, greatly appreciates the relaxed atmosphere of these cinematographic cabarets. At his console, in the middle of the room, Lennon directs the traffic of the filmmakers present and sometimes makes summary introductions: “Okay, well, we’re going to see a good movie!”. »
Danny Lennon has also programmed short films for numerous festivals, both in Quebec and abroad, always under the banner Prends ça court!. “There was a year when I supported 300 programs around the world. I had to spend 40 days in Montreal. »
$320,000 in prizes
However, it is more for the Gala Prends ça court! that the label became known to the general public. “I launched the gala a few years after the first cabaret, in reaction to the lack of initiative from institutions. Even at the biggest festival in Montreal, $250 was offered to the best short film. At the last gala, we awarded $320,000 to the artists in total. Some prizes are worth $20,000. I don’t know of any other organizations that do the same for short films. »
Many of the gala winners went on to have brilliant careers in feature films, such as Karl Lemieux (Passage2008) or Monia Chokri (Someone extraordinary, 2014). Danny Lennon also accompanied illustrious filmmakers abroad, notably Denis Villeneuve, for his film Next Floor (2008).
Today, the programmer collaborates with several organizations, including the Festival du cinéma international en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, in addition to directing his own cinema, Haskell, in Estrie. He organizes his world tour on a voluntary basis. “It’s really to give back to artists and because I like working with them, but also to prove that we can do great things without institutions. »