Decryption | The phenomenon La Course

The Race destination worldin all its incarnations (of the Americas, America-Africa, Europe-Asia), was in 11 seasons between 1988 and 1999 a formidable laboratory of creation and an incredible breeding ground for talent. The legendary Radio-Canada show not only made a generation dream, but it also helped to train many young directors, artists and journalists. The Press revisits this phenomenon on the occasion of the release of the film 1995by Ricardo Trogi, who discusses his participation in the show.

Read Marc Cassivi’s column “Interview with Ricardo Trogi: in 1995”

The concept

On Sundays at 5 p.m. on Radio-Canada (and then on Saturdays at the same time for the last two seasons), eight competitors selected from some 500 candidates presented a short film that they had shot in the previous weeks, somewhere in the world. For six months, they chose their own destinations and subjects, then sent their editing plan and videocassettes to Radio-Canada (to editor Denis Gathelier, who sometimes worked miracles).

They were then judged on a 20-point grid by three judges, including journalist Michel Coulombe, filmmaker Manon Barbeau and anthropologist Jean-Michel Vidal. Points were sometimes deducted for latecomers. “I am someone who is in charge of my own business,” Ricardo Trogi explained to me. “I have been late for reasons beyond my control…”

At the end of the season, a gala rewarded the big winner of The Racewho had obtained the best average, with a scholarship accompanied by an internship (at the NFB, for example), then other prizes were awarded to competitors for the quality of the image, the quality of the commentary, etc. A public prize was awarded by The Press.

The television viewers

The show, first hosted by Michel Désautels and later directed by Pierre Therrien, attracted an average of 500,000 viewers, some of them extremely invested. When viewers disagreed with the judges, they let them know. “Jean-Michel Vidal told me he got yelled at in the street for something he said about one of my films!” Ricardo Trogi, who finished third in the 1994-1995 edition, reminded me. Trogi had taken the liberty of doing editorial work in a film made in Egypt, which is discussed in his new film, 1995. “It put me off for the rest of my life! I stayed away from politics,” he says with a laugh.

Famous names

Several of the show’s 88 contestants have become directors, including Denis Villeneuve, Philippe Falardeau, Robin Aubert, Yves Christian Fournier, Stéphane Lapointe, Maryse Legagneur, Hugo Latulippe, Bruno Boulianne, Jennifer Alleyn, Patrick Demers, Karina Goma, François Péloquin, Dominic Desjardins, Sophie Lambert, Stéphane Thibault, Danic Champoux, Manuel Foglia and Marie-Julie Dallaire. Others are media personalities: hosts Patrick Masbourian and Philippe Dersrosiers, columnist François Parenteau, journalist Étienne Leblanc and comedian Guy Nantel, among others.

The different Races

Heir to a concept disseminated in the French-speaking world in the 1970s and 1980s, The Race Around the Worldnotably with Jean-Louis Boudou and Georges Amar, The Race had a final incarnation on Canal Évasion, in the early 2010s, for two seasons. The author of these lines was also a judge there, along with Karina Marceau and Patrick Masbourian, after Nathalie Petrowski, Marcel Jean and François Parenteau… who became a fictional character in 1995. The loop of The Race is closed.