There was not a single pair of dry eyes coming out of the screening of the documentary Life in front of me, earlier this week at the Festival du cinéma international en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (FCIAT). Rightly so, since we are following a group of young people with cancer during an outdoor trip. Their names are Loryanne, Vincent, Mélorie, Aidan, Arielle, Mégane, Rania and Valérie. Throughout this poignant but luminous film directed by Simon C. Vaillancourt, we are guided by the host and actor André Robitaille, who asks questions with sensitivity and, above all, listens.
We met them just after the presentation, very emotional. Most of the participants made the trip for the occasion. Life in front of me could not have its premiere at a more appropriate event, its very existence being linked to the FCIAT, as revealed by Simon C. Vaillancourt.
“Five years ago, we were here [avec le producteur Yves Lafontaine et la scénariste Louise Girard] to present the documentary Stanley Vollant, from Compostela to Kuujjuaq. The day after the screening, Jean-Charles Fortin, who participates in the film and is general manager of the Sur la pointe des pieds foundation, told us: “I might have a subject for you.” He had this little flame in his eyes, and immediately, I boarded. “
What is On the Tip of the Toes? Since 1996, this foundation has been organizing outdoor adventures for young people with cancer. The goal: to get them out of the hospital environment and to promote, in nature, a therapeutic rediscovery and surpassing oneself. These meetings are also intended as an opportunity for these teenagers to meet up with each other and exchange ideas, knowing that they are understood straight away.
André Robitaille had already collaborated with Simon C. Vaillancourt. Used to conducting interviews, the facilitator ofMain entrance and Children of TV at the same time has experience which made him an ideal candidate to collect with the required tact the reflections and confidences of these young people.
Listening first
“I’m lucky to be healthy, but yes, I experienced it [le cancer] up close, he says. Although everyone has them in their family. I did twelve telethons, which means that I worked with a lot of affected children, very small, and specialists, parents … I have a lot of data in there, but when I was told about teenagers, I thought it was new. I like that age, my daughter is the age of the girls in the film… I immediately took it personal, and I think that’s the right thing to do. “
The proposed context also pleased André Robitaille. In fact, canoe trips on lakes and rivers, descents of rapids and camping were on the program: we could not be further from the interviews carried out in the cozy comfort of a studio.
“Going on an expedition with teenagers, that appealed to me. And it allowed me to do a kind of interview that I had never done in my life. This is what I wanted from the start: to reach a truth, a depth, without censorship. “
A wish clearly shared, the tongues loosening spontaneously, even with relief, without feeling the slightest insistence on the part of the interviewer or the camera.
“They were hungry to talk,” continues André Robitaille. They were happy to bring up all of these topics. Yes, we are talking about sexuality, death… There was this side “finally, someone asks us, the screeching of questions”. Y’know? […] But I have always cleared customs with them. In a briefing, before the shoot, I told them that they were free to answer or not, but that I was free in my questions: we had this kind of understanding together. Thanks to their openness, a good relationship was immediately established. “
Going on an expedition with teenagers, that spoke to me. And it allowed me to do a kind of interview that I had never done in my life. This is what I wanted from the start: to reach a truth, a depth, without censorship.
In fact, one of the most striking aspects of Life in front of me, and a good part of this is undoubtedly attributable to the bond of trust that André Robitaille was able to weave, is the very frank content of the remarks. The listening quality already mentioned has also certainly played a role.
“For me, it’s a law. I used it in my interviews with Janine Sutto, Dominique Michel… I just finished with Jean-Pierre Ferland; it is deposited. In this type of interview, being silent is no worse. Let the silence exist. Often, we are afraid of silence, but in this silence, something is said. And the guest, because you leave this space, he is inclined to fill it, and he will perhaps say something that he would not have said otherwise. In the film, the best compliment young people have given me is to admit that there were a lot of things they had never said before. Simon and I were very, very close, in order to make it all intimate, despite the forest and the river. “
“It was immediately very sincere,” adds Simon C. Vaillancourt, who in the same breath evokes a shoot dotted with giggles.
“For example, there was this moment, when the camera was not running, when André was telling the story of the time he was given his FADOQ card. [Fédération de l’âge d’or du Québec] live on his show Main entrance, and how embarrassing it had been. And there you have Loryanne [une des participantes] who launches: “Well, we would like to have one, one day, a FADOQ card.” Bam! We laughed. But this is to say how we put everything in perspective when they come into contact with them. “
Doing useful work
During the interview, the voices of Simon C. Vaillancourt and André Robitaille sometimes break. There is the warmth of the welcome received at the moment, the fact of having experienced the screening with the young people, and now all these filming memories which are revisited by our discussion. There is something to be on edge. Looking in the rearview mirror, Simon C. Vaillancourt admits to feeling above all gratitude.
“Often, at the end of the interviews, I would thank them for what they had just taught me about life by sharing them. They’re a couple of decades younger than Andre and I, but they’ve taught us so much, with their resilience. They have a breathtaking maturity. “
A similar story from André Robitaille, who hopes that Life in front of me will do useful work.
“I want this film to resonate in an original way. There is a lot of material on cancer, I am in a good position to know that. Don’t want to, it’s often the same music, and it’s up to us to renew it. That’s what these kids are doing. “
François Lévesque is in Rouyn-Noranda at the invitation of the International Film Festival in Abitibi-Témiscamingue.