Quebec works at Slamdance | The Press

With four projects, three short films and the series I would like to be erased, Quebec has its place in the programming of the independent film festival Slamdance, whose 28^and edition will take place, online, from January 27 to February 6.

Andre Duchesne
The Press

Movies In the Jam Jar, by Colin Nixon, and Enjoy the garbage! (See You, Garbage!), by Romain Dumont, are registered in the category of short fiction films. Another Quebecer, Toby Andris, is also present with his film Chiatura, a French production whose story is set in Georgia, a former Soviet republic where Mr. Andris currently lives. Moreover, the numerical series I would like to be erased (GOES : Wipe Me Away), by Éric Picolli and Florence Lafond (co-screenwriter), is listed with six other works in the Episodes section.

Enjoy the garbage!

This short film features three garbage collectors, played by Guillaume Laurin, Hamza Meziani and Hamidou Savadogo, who, on Christmas Eve, are invited to eat at the home of the Premier of Quebec (Steve Laplante) and his wife (Caroline Dhavernas) . The exchanges, tinged with unease, are followed by surveillance cameras scrutinized by a bodyguard (Ralph Prosper).

In an interview, Romain Dumont is indignant at certain ways in which politicians act. “I am not targeting anyone in particular, but I found it interesting to see how certain trades are manipulated to reach voters. But this is done with enormous contempt that we think we can hide when it doesn’t work, ”summarizes the director joined in Paris where he settled to pursue his career.

When he discovered, while reading a magazine, that the former French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing had, on December 24, 1974, invited three garbage collectors to lunch at the Élysée with the aim of renewing communication with the ordinary citizen, Mr. Dumont held the subject of his film which was shot in a house in the Golden Square Mile in Montreal.

In the Jam Jar

Starring France Castel and Alain Goulem, this short film shot in English is a frontal, moving and emphatic reflection on the death of a loved one. In this case, we witness the last days of intimacy between Joan and her son Dan, a few days before the death of the mother.

“I see it as a meditation on death and mourning,” says Mr. Nixon, a young filmmaker who worked in a CHSLD. It’s a conversation in which the characters share the unsaid, what they would have liked to say to each other. This conversation never took place during Joan’s lifetime, but no doubt each knew what the other wanted to tell her. »

The choice of France Castel is among other things modulated by her tone of voice, says Mr. Nixon. “This voice was perfect for the film, a good part of which takes place in voiceover. »

As for the choice of framing in the round, whose shape refers to a jar of jam, it blends in with the structure of the film made in the form of a diptych. “The first image refers to the last, the second to the penultimate, etc., explains Mr. Nixon. It also creates a very beautiful moment of intimacy. »

Chiatura

Short fiction film with a strong documentary approach, Chiatura takes us to the heart of a mining town of some 10,000 inhabitants whose main activity is manganese mining.

We follow the journey of Eliso (Darejan Khachidze), a woman who, the day after the end of a strike, does not accept this return to work for personal reasons. She then decides to paralyze the activities by taking control of the cable car intended for the movement of minors.

“The situation seen in the film is contemporary,” says Toby Andris. Again last year, there were major strikes. Since everything was privatized (after the collapse of the USSR), the working conditions are difficult, unsafe. »

The cinematography of the film is exceptional, oscillating between the old and the modern, between “the poetic and the post-apocalyptic” to use the words of the filmmaker.

I would like to be erased

Adaptation of the novel by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, the series I would like to be erased has been attracting attention since its first broadcast, in March 2021, on Tou.tv where it can still be seen. Last October, she stood out at Canneseries, an international television series festival, thanks to the Dior Prize for Revelation awarded to young actor Malik Gervais-Aubourg.

His entry into Slamdance is his first foray into the United States. “That a nested story like this is presented by the programmers of a festival of the scale of Slamdance makes me happy,” says director Éric Picolli. I am happy to know that we are going to make the Saint-Michel district known to the spectators. And I’m happy to see that festivals recognize the language of works in series format like this. »

Here and there

It should also be noted that an American documentary feature entered in Slamdance, forget me Not, was directed by New York filmmaker Olivier Bernier, who has Quebec origins. The latter recounts his family’s journey to enroll his son Emilio, who has Down syndrome, in an inclusive class.

English Canada is also present with feature films Honeycomb, from Avalon Fast, Therapy Dogs, by Ethan Eng, and Retrograde, by Adrian Murray, the short Freebird in coproduction with the United States and the interactive project Bystanding – The Feingold Syndrome in co-production with Germany and Israel.

In total, the program includes 28 feature films, 79 shorts and 7 series in episodes. These works were chosen from among 8,168 projects submitted, including 1,579 feature-length fiction and documentaries.

The festival is accessible in Canada by purchasing a pass at a cost of US$10, plus fees.