It’s one of the most daring festivals among all those taking place in Montreal. One of the youngest, too. The eighth edition of the Plein(s) Écran(s) short film festival offers, starting January 16, a program that “shakes the cage” and shows strong, free or crazy characters. Or all of this at once.
“These are very personal films. There are a lot of questions about the system and society,” underlines Ariane Roy-Poirier, general director of Plein(s) Écran(s).
“There is something very pirate-like about the short film. We make films because we love art,” adds actress Catherine Brunet, spokesperson for the event for a second year.
The program offers around forty films free online, including 24 Quebec short films in official competition. Events also take place in person, including opening night at the Beaubien Cinema (the only ticketed event of the festival). The closing party will take place at the La Remission bar, on the Plateau-Mont-Royal. The works are grouped under four themes, which clearly define this new edition: punk, soft, surprising and meditative.
The opening film, Kill the bikini!, by Justine Gauthier, sets the tone. Little Lili, 10 years old, refuses to wear a bikini top to go to the water slides: “I don’t have any breasts!” » The young actress Mia Garnier aptly embodies a character who does as she pleases, far from social conventions, against the backdrop of punk music.
This short film will be presented in a censored version when it is broadcast on Facebook, one of the platforms where you can follow the festival. Indeed, the social network’s rules regarding nudity are particularly strict. They prevent showing a young girl topless, even if there is nothing sexual about it.
“Preferring to find an inventive solution rather than removing this favorite film from our programming, we decided, with the approval of the film team, to also censor the bare torsos of the boys to underline the absurdity of this censorship , which goes against the very artistic gesture of the director,” added the festival in a press release.
“A compendium of talent”
Ariane Roy-Poirier and Catherine Brunet are overflowing with enthusiasm when talking about short films in general, and those presented at Plein(s) Écran(s) in particular. These are often films created with limited means, very intimate, with reduced dialogue (not much space for blabla in 10 minutes), where images and sound take up a lot of space. “Creativity” is the key word for short film makers. These films are anything but boring.
These are often first works, but not always: Denis Villeneuve relaunched his career in 2008 with the short Next Floorwritten by Jacques Davidts.
“The short film is a compendium of talent. Many filmmakers say that it is more difficult to make a short film than a feature film,” underlines Ariane Roy-Poirier.
The films presented are of a duration varying between 2 and 23 minutes. The average duration is around fifteen minutes. With few exceptions, they were shot in seven days or less.
On Facebook and Instagram
The Plein(s) Écran(s) festival operates with a small, young and dynamic team, which counts on an annual budget of $400,000. Around 10% of this amount is used to pay the broadcast rights for the selected works, according to the director.
The films are broadcast for free on the festival’s website and on social networks, including Facebook and Instagram, owned by Meta, which blocked journalistic news after a standoff with the media, including The duty. “We are not very comfortable with what Meta represents, but we must go out and meet the public,” says Ariane Roy-Poirier.
“We are going to flood social networks with Quebec art,” adds Catherine Brunet.
Viewers can subscribe to Patreon for $5 to see all of the selected films at any time. Otherwise, the works will be put online free of charge for a period of 24 hours from the moment they are on the festival schedule.
The program also includes a guided screening, a master class, a script reading evening and a program of five short films for the family screened on the big screen in five cities (Montreal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Rouyn-Noranda and Rimouski). In addition, a Carte Blanche signed by the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, in partnership with Les Sommets de l’animation de Montréal, will take place on January 20 at the Cinémathèque québécoise.
With Étienne Paré