In February 2016, thirty years after his death, Claude Jutra’s reputation was forever tarnished by serious allegations of sexual assault on minors. In the space of just a few days, he went from national hero to reviled figure in the collective imagination. All traces of the director have been erased from public space. Eight years later, director Jean-Claude Coulbois focuses, in a new documentary, on this media storm that shook Quebec. With this question as a backdrop: did we “cancel” Claude Jutra too quickly?
According to the director of Eleven days in February, it would have been better to take a step back, rather than rushing to erase Claude Jutra from history as we did. “This is a case that raises several questions. Of course we have to provide answers to the questions we ask ourselves. But do we have to respond to them straight away? Can’t we take a moment before answering such complex questions which touch on the presumption of innocence? » argues Jean-Claude Coulbois in an interview with Duty.
Let us recall that the “Jutra affair” is sparked by a biography of Yves Lever, an obscure historian of Quebec cinema, whom Denys Arcand describes with assumed contempt in Eleven days in February like a “scramp” and a “parasite”. Still, a short chapter in his book will have the effect of a bomb. Lever says he spoke to several people who confirmed to him that Jutra was a pedophile, without however having collected the testimony of victims.
In the cinema world, the unease is palpable. Should we change the name of the Jutra gala, which at the time rewarded the best of Quebec cinema? The debate is open, but everything changes when, four days later, The Press publishes an interview with one of the filmmaker’s alleged victims. The man, who testifies under the fictitious name of Jean, reveals having suffered sexual assault from the director from the age of 6.
This time, it’s too much. The Minister of Culture at the time, Hélène David, made a very emotional outing the same morning to ask that the gala change its name. Québec Cinéma complies and deletes any reference to the director of My uncle Antoine of its awards ceremony. The streets, the parks, the Claude-Jutra rooms disappear from the toponymy. In Montreal, the statue of Charles Daudelin in homage to Jutra will be vandalized, then removed.
“We forget how decisive political intervention was. Why is the Minister of Culture interested in a story that would normally have been taken up by the judiciary, which could not have done anything, because we are talking about an anonymous denunciation about a man who has been dead for 30 years . There is an issue of presumption of innocence, but there is also an issue of separation of powers,” regrets Jean-Claude Coulbois.
Conviction without trial
The director says he approached Hélène David numerous times to participate in his documentary, in vain. Screenwriter Bernard Dansereau, who also accused Claude Jutra of having attempted sexual acts against him when he was a child, for his part declined the interview request. As for Jean*, the documentary maker claims to know who it is, but he did not see fit to speak to him for this film. Biographer Yves Lever was supposed to give his version of the facts, but he died in July 2020, a few days before filming.
Eleven days in February therefore essentially gives the floor to friends of Claude Jutra, or to personalities who criticize the media and political treatment of this affair, including the late Rock Demers and Denys Arcand. How is it that things usually take years to change in Quebec, when a few days were enough to erase a man from history, the director of the film asks in the film. Decline of the American Empirewith all the cynicism we know from him.
One of the people interviewed in this documentary even goes so far as to compare the conviction without trial to which Claude Jutra was subjected to the treatment reserved for political dissidents during the time of Nazism and Stalinism. Nothing less !
As a reminder, the name of Claude Jutra has certainly been erased from public space. But his films are not censored. They can still be viewed on Videotron’s Éléphant platform. Almost no one questions his qualities as a director and his pioneering role in the history of Quebec cinema. Unfortunately, Eleven days in February falls into the trap of the most excessive anti-wokism, which refuses any questioning as to how to pay homage to the great artists who also committed more than reprehensible acts.
Two other testimonies
Jean-Claude Coulbois, who wishes to point out that he never knew Jutra personally, nevertheless denies having made a militant film aimed at rehabilitating the filmmaker. “My goal is not to rehabilitate Claude Jutra. It’s not going to happen anyway. This is not a film about Jutra. It’s not a film about pedophilia either. It’s a film about us. On how we deal with such serious allegations. Also on the way we build heroes,” he emphasizes.
At the end of this film, some might be tempted to dismiss the posthumous allegations about the filmmaker as mere rumors. However, in an interview with Duty, Mr. Coulbois says he is convinced that Claude Jutra was indeed a pedophile. He even says that as part of his research he was able to speak to two victims of Jutra, whose testimonies are added to those of Jean* and Bernard Dansereau.
“I think everyone in the industry knew that Jutra liked young men aged 14-15. But for very young children, very few people knew that,” says Mr. Coulbois, who surprisingly decided to hide this information in his documentary.