This Hollywood film trilogy directed by a couple from Quebec could have eradicated hunger in the world and made all children equal. But it instead left nearly 650 people penniless, in addition to leading to numerous charges against the protagonists in this case.
Financed by a few hundred investors who were promised huge economic benefits, the “Lovaganza” project, aimed at producing a series of large-scale films as well as a human chain around the world, intended to finance humanitarian projects, ultimately never saw the light of day.
True will broadcast on its platform from Tuesday a documentary on the underside of this case, in which former employees, associates, investors, as well as journalists who covered the case and the Californian production team hired to shoot the films agreed to testify.
The documentary “Lovaganza: The Great Illusion” reveals how the scheme succeeded in extracting more than $20 million from 650 investors as well as the rather surprising way in which the organization operated. “Often during the research we fell out of our chairs,” said director Aude Leroux-Lévesque. As much about the details surrounding the alleged involvement of Steven Spielberg as the history of mentorship, ”she said.
In Quebec, the couple formed by Mark-Érik Fortin and Karine Lamarre, who pleaded guilty to 79 charges five years ago and whose legal proceedings have since stretched, were responsible for soliciting investors. With the company One Land Corporation, they raised and then transferred millions of dollars to the couple of “producers, screenwriters and directors” Jean-François Gagnon and Geneviève Cloutier in Hollywood. The Gagnon-Cloutier couple, for their part, led an extravagant lifestyle, worthy of the stars.
The voice of the victims
Started just before the pandemic, it took two years for Aude Leroux-Lévesque and Sébastien Rist to collect testimonies from victims, ex-employees and the technical team of the Californian production, for their documentary.
“It took time, but it had to be done. There were no other ways to work to validate [les informations]to make sure that everything corroborated, that we had the right testimonies on the screen”, first explained Sébastien Rist.
“[Les témoignages de l’équipe de Los Angeles] helped us fill a big void for many people, including victims and employees. When they found out that we had contacted the technicians, they had several questions because they wanted to know if the film existed and what really happened with the money raised,” he continued.
Well done and captivating, Vrai’s documentary offers some of the answers. But as is the case in this kind of story, there are still a few questions to be answered, such as “where did the 24 million go,” added Ms. Leroux-Lévesque in an interview with the QMI Agency.
It continues
Still unpunished, Jean-François Gagnon and Geneviève Cloutier do not seem to have given up on their film project. After “Lovaganza”, and their other project “I see life as this”, the couple this time embarked on a new business called “JF & G’s Terradisio” for which a taste featuring them in the roles main ones was shared on their website.
In the form of a “behind scene”, we see the couple on a film set on the shores of Lake Como in Italy (Lago di Como) explaining their new cinematographic project, without saying too much about the story. Different professionals; photographer, director of photography, costume designer and ballet teacher take turns praising the technical prowess used in the conception of this feature film, in addition to praising the qualities of the couple, who are still being prosecuted by the AMF.
“Lovaganza: The Great Illusion” is to be seen on Vrai on Tuesday.