Before even putting his camera in the middle of the vast expanses of the 55and parallel that surround the villages of Schefferville, Matimekush-Lac John and Kawawachikamach, where it is impossible to reach by car, director Sarah Fortin was not afraid of challenges. In 2011, driven by her admiration for the artist and guided by her temerity, she tracked the singer Stephen Faulkner in I’m leaving come backoften alone to observe him struggling in a world that no longer seems to want him, and not only that of music.
At the same time, the one that passes documentary series (39-45: on Canadian soil, World champion) to short fiction films (The river on the right, Manouk) was already thinking about what would later becomeNew Quebec, also nourished by a passion, that of a territory of which she knew nothing a few years earlier. Because if one often evokes the influence of the emission The race destination world on a whole generation of Quebec directors, we talk less about the influence exercised by Wapikoni Mobile on the filmmaker-trainers who took part in this adventure with Aboriginal communities.
Sarah Fortin was part of this team in the 2000s, discovering a territory of which she knew nothing… and which obviously will never leave her again. “I can’t speak for others, says the director, but a lot of things have changed in my career, starting with New Quebec, thanks to Wapikoni. I discovered all these people with whom we share the same territory, but we don’t rub shoulders with them. I had always dreamed of carrying out documentary projects internationally, when there is a whole section of Quebec that I was completely unaware of. After a first contact in Schefferville, she will return there every year, to immerse herself in the landscape and cultivate friendships. To get there, you must leave your car in Sept-Îles and take a 568 km train journey, lasting 12 hours — when all is well!
Neophytes often arrive at the station with a dazed air, similar to that displayed by Sophie (Christine Beaulieu) and Mathieu (Jean-Sébastien Courchesne), a couple for whom this trip takes on a symbolic dimension. This teacher, who left too young to remember these places, will spread the ashes of her father there, a former worker in a mining company who, like all the others, had closed shop in the early 1980s, leaving desolation behind… and demolitions.
His companion wanted to be present, but did not know that this journey was going to shake his certainties, and awaken many demons in him. Because tragic incidents will force them to extend their stay, between a dragging police investigation, a train that never arrives at the scheduled time, and the ghosts of the past that have not been carried away at the same speed as houses destroyed.
Before New Quebecwe can’t help but see in Sophie the daughter of one of the characters in the docu-fiction The last glacier (1984), by Jacques Leduc and Roger Frappier, the two filmmakers capturing the closure of this mining town and the injuries it will cause. Sarah Fortin knows this film, lulled for a long time by Schefferville, the last trainthe theme song of Michel Rivard, his childhood idol, she who signed a music video for him, Sixteen years already. “Coming to think of it, she laughs, my first contact with Schefferville was this song! I believe that the workers who left “in the south” have kept a somewhat romantic memory of this period and this territory. »
On Facebook, she continues, “I discovered several groups of Schefferville alumni who were sorry to see the current state of things. Many houses have been demolished: it is as tragic for those who left, unable to find traces of their childhood and their roots, as for those who remained. As if their life there didn’t matter, while the community still has a serious housing problem. » As for the movie theater evoked in the magnificent song by Rivard also appearing on the album Savagethe director wants to dispel our last illusions: there is nothing left of the Roxy, and for a very long time already.
On the other hand, between the embryonic versions of the screenplay in 2011 and the shooting in 2019 – its release on March 18 testifies, if necessary, to the effects of the pandemic on the distribution sector… – something has changed in this corner of country, especially for the Innu and the Naskapi: the resumption of mining. “It may seem like good news, since it gives work to people in the community, underlines Sarah Fortin, but it also raises a lot of questions, among other things about the past. When the economic conditions are no longer favourable, will the companies still leave, leaving big holes in the territory? These people experience an ambivalence between the protection of their environment and greater economic vitality. »
This has not yet been felt everywhere, which has posed some challenges, Sarah Fortin being well aware that the distance (if a piece of equipment breaks, patience and resourcefulness are required), the technical constraints ( forget cellular networks), the unpredictability of train schedules (pitting delays won’t make it arrive any faster) can affect a film crew’s morale. Especially for more than a month.
“No one goes home at night,” quips Sarah Fortin. Several technicians refused because they didn’t want to be away from their children, so I had a young and lively team, always together from morning to night, and who weren’t on the phone between takes! But no one had the same reaction to this place: some felt oppressed because they had no control. In the middle of these wide open spaces, you don’t necessarily choose when you arrive and when you leave…”
This discomfort also interferes with Sophie and Mathieu, showing the pressure that strangeness and the unexpected exert on a couple, especially when each reacts in a different way in front of other cultures, intrigued or accusing looks, or simple fact of waiting without knowing what tomorrow will bring.
As for Sarah Fortin’s future, they are clearer. Her love for the great outdoors and the First Nations, she cultivates it at the moment by filming alongside the Innu poet Joséphine Bacon in a four-handed documentary, Nitassinan, an ode to the territory woven over four seasons. We bet she hasn’t finished taking trains, and will always be happy about it.
New Quebec hits theaters March 18.