Launched Monday, the new digital platform The Panopticon has set itself the task of restoring films hitherto unavailable elsewhere. And for its debut, the site hits hard by offering the range of short films made by filmmaker Denis Côté in the early 2000s, before he became the terrible child of Quebec cinema.
The specialized media Panorama–movie theatercreator of the Panopticon, promises additions like this every month. Always in the spirit of digitizing often forgotten works, which are not found on any other platform.
In this sense, we present the initiative as a complement to Éléphant, a project to restore old Quebec films set up by Quebecor in 2008. “Éléphant is working on more accessible films. But there are still a lot of gray areas. There are very particular films which fell into cracks”, specified Mathieu Li-Goyette, editor-in-chief of Panorama-cinema.
What’s more, The Panopticon will not be limited to Quebec cinema, unlike Elephant. Ultimately, we want to unearth films from all over the world, especially English Canada, where there are no such platforms highlighting film heritage.
No subscription
For now, moviegoers can watch the eight short films made by Denis Côté between 1999 and 2005 on Le Panopticon. To this are added excerpts from location scouting in Nord-du-Québec before the shooting ofstates nordic, the first feature film by Denis Côté, released in 2005.
Everything is available for $6.99, a one-week rental, like in the days of video clubs. In an era where most platforms operate by subscription, this is, to say the least, a bold business model, recognizes Mathieu Li-Goyette. “When you have subscribers, you always have to satisfy them so that they stay by constantly offering new content. We didn’t want that pressure,” he explained in an interview with To have to.
The editor of Panorama-cinema did not want to say more about the work which will be put online next month, contenting himself with indicating that the restoration required the recording of music. This process is made possible thanks to funding from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts de Montréal.