(Park City, Utah) Three Quebec filmmakers have been selected to present their work at the Sundance Film Festival. The best known, Xavier Dolan, must attend the screening of his series The night Laurier Gaudreault woke up this Tuesday. Like this regular at major festivals, Aziz Zoromba and Alec Pronovost also have the honor of joining the industry and foreign audiences from Park City. The Press spoke to them.
The short movie Simo, by Montreal director Aziz Zoromba, perfectly demonstrates the international potential of Quebec cinematographic works. Winner of the prize for best Canadian short film at the Toronto Film Festival, selected in official competition at the 2023 edition of the Berlinale, the film is presented these days at the Sundance festival.
A prestigious international hat-trick that the filmmaker receives with some incredulity. “It’s an incredible feeling, it’s even better than in my dreams,” he said. It makes me proud, but I don’t have time to really realize everything.
It was so fast and sometimes I think it’s a little too good to be true.
Quebec director Aziz Zoromba
Simo is “the film that Aziz has always wanted to make”, describes Rosalie Chicoine Perreault, producer of the project. The short film tells the story of two brothers of Egyptian origin and the dramatic turn taken by a harmless gesture made by one of them. “It’s a story of assimilation and how to assimilate without erasing your culture, describes Aziz Zoromba. The message is that even if we come from another culture, we are Quebecers, whether some people like it or not, and we are also proud of our roots. »
This message resonates very strongly beyond the borders of Quebec, but also at home, where it won the audience award at the Festival du nouveau cinema. Several local media, however, obliterated his presence at Sundance. “It happens all the time,” he says. Often, racialized people have to put in twice the work for the same result. We see the names of directors like me and we say to ourselves that they are not from Quebec, so we skip over it. »
For Aziz, Sundance, like other festivals, is “a way to prove yourself”. His presence in Park City consists of a lot of (stressful) meetings with agents and producers, says the one who has already been selected for the festival in 2019 for the Ignite program, which supports the next generation. “I was able to see the whole business aspect and the American market, which I’m not really attracted to,” he says.
The recognition he receives with his selection in the short film section of the festival is more important to him than the idea of selling his work to the highest bidder on the international market.
My dream is to make big films. But I’m young, I still have tools to learn and I want to be in Quebec to learn them.
Quebec director Aziz Zoromba
respect for comedy
At a cafe in downtown Salt Lake City, director Alec Pronovost describes the same routine at Sundance as Aziz. Meetings with representatives of the community, photo sessions and, above all, the world premiere screening of his short film, Professional Poolin front of hundreds of people at the Prospector Square Theater in Park City, the day before.
An experience as agonizing as it is exhilarating for those who make comedies. “You wonder if it’s going to rise, because it would be boring if it didn’t react,” he said. But everyone in the room reacted very strongly, it really laughed, it was very cool. »
PHOTO MARISSA GROGUHÉ, THE PRESS
Alec Pronovost
The short films are presented in groups of six. The level is very high, he says, which adds to the honor of being among the 64 selected. “Sundance is one of the first festivals you hear about when you start doing that in life,” says Alec Pronovost. All the greats have been there. »
In Park City, he felt “the curiosity and the love of cinema”. “There are business cards, but that comes from the love of films. People want to talk, the energy is good. »
Alec Pronovost, who produces projects that are always oriented towards humor (The Killing, Completely high school, Jeep Boys), knows that many of his idols debuted at Sundance, a festival that “is open to comedy.”
In the middle, comedy is less prestigious, less popular. It’s seen as less cool. But not at Sundance. Here, they always saw the artistic potential and the creative value behind it, and the fact that it’s an art form, a culture in itself.
Alec Pronovost
Sundance has always been a “fantasy” for him. It is ultimately with Professional Pool, a short film “without festival ambition”, that he achieved this dream. The eight-minute film chronicles the daily life of a university graduate forced to work in a swimming pool store to earn a living. “I felt the need to make this film while I was doing a directing contract that didn’t stimulate me,” says Alec. It took me back to when I worked at Club Piscine at the end of my baccalaureate in cinema. I regurgitated those emotions that I was going through, when you feel out of place, want to do more, but have to be there. »
At the time, friends from his baccalaureate had been selected for the festival. “In the movie, it inspired a scene where a school friend goes to see [le personnage principal] and tells him about his super cool life internationally. He is happy for him, but it breaks him, says Alec Pronovost. There is something symbolic: I made a film about those disappointments and it finally brought me here. »
And now that he’s at Sundance, the festival fuels his passion for cinema every day. “The goal now is to go there with a feature film,” he said. I want to take the time to write my film. It reminded me not to go too far from this, that this is my dream and it always has been. »
Dolan expected this week
Xavier Dolan, who no longer has to prove himself in the film industry, also has a presence at Sundance on his agenda. No festival can resist this regular on the international circuit. With his very first series, The night Laurier Gaudreault woke up, Dolan seduced the Quebec public, as did the French market, which has been showing her on the small screen since Monday. fame The Night Logan Woke Up, this adaptation of a play by Michel Marc Bouchard is now one of the four series chosen for the festival. It will be screened in the presence of the filmmaker this Tuesday. The Press will be there.
The Sundance Film Festival continues through January 29.