With the death of Leonard Forest on Tuesday at the venerable age of 96, Acadia loses one of its emblematic figures. Filmmaker and poet, Léonard Forest worked for a long time within the National Film Board (ONF). Anxious to reach out more to the various French-speaking communities, he pushed for increased regionalization during his time at the NFB: offices were thus inaugurated in New Brunswick and Ontario.
Born in 1928 to Acadian parents in the town of Chelsea, Massachusetts, Léonard Forest returned with them to Moncton, New Brunswick, while he was still a baby. That’s where he grew up.
Enrolled in the classical course, he founded a film club, but decided not to complete his training. After a few years working as a journalist for an English radio station, he left Moncton and joined the NFB, whose head office was then located in Ottawa, in 1953.
“I went there because I wanted to make films. And because it was as much my National Film Office as that of [quiconque] came from elsewhere,” confided the main interested party in 2014 in the NFB portrait series A history of cinema.
During the thirty years that he worked at the NFB, Léonard Forest acted in particular as director of the general program of French production and director of the French television team, as well as director of the French production program committee. .
As a filmmaker, he has directed more than fifteen films, including documentaries The Acadians of the disappearance, The wedding is not over or A sun like no other. Acadian identity and destiny constitute unifying themes within his work.
However, Léonard Forest readily turns his gaze towards other communities and cultures, as evidenced by Hello sunfilmed in Haiti.
Never left
On the literary front, Léonard Forest published six works ranging from poetry collections to children’s books. In 2016, the Acadian Association of Professional Artists of New Brunswick honored him for his entire career.
Still in the documentary A history of cinema, Léonard Forest has this very beautiful phrase: “What led me to leave Acadia? I did not leave Acadia. »
His journey attests that indeed, wherever he worked, his head and his heart always remained firmly anchored there.