From February 16 to 26, the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois invites you to its 24th edition, the largest gathering of devotees of Quebec cinema, presented by the SAQ. This year, the Rendez-vous will show more than 190 films at the Cinémathèque québécoise, NFB theatre, Cinéma Beaubien and the Grande Bibliothèque du Québec. Raymond Bouchard, the event’s spokesman, accompanied by over 150 directors, actors and skilled professionals from our film industry, will gather for this 10-day event. The program includes a wide selection of premieres, 2005 hits, shorts and documentaries, art films and experimental films, student productions, and animated films. The Rendez-vous will also entice festival-goers with a myriad of free activities held at the Bistro SAQ.


What a prolific year for Quebec cinema! The international success of many Quebec productions confirms the quality and vitality of our film industry. The interest of Quebec audiences for homegrown cinema is an indisputable proof of their appreciation; it’s a sure sign of success for an industry which broke records last year (18.2% market share in 2005). These ten days of celebration are therefore a perfect opportunity for the public to discover and explore our cinema.

Enchanting from start to finish

There’s no better way than a red-carpet opening night at the Cinéma Impérial to launch this 24th edition of the Rendez-vous in style. Don’t miss the festive and glamorous atmosphere on February 16 for the world premiere of Que Dieu bénisse l’Amérique, Robert Morin’s latest feature film, preceded by a screening of Chez Madame Poule, a funny and touching animated short by Tali. This colourful and lively opening-night celebration is presented by Technicolor.

The closing film, De ma fenêtre, sans maison…, Maryanne Zéhil’s first feature film, starring Louise Portal, will premiere February 26 at the Cinémathèque québécoise. The film will be preceded by Au cœur brisé, a short directed by Antoinette Karuna also starring Louise Portal. Both films will be coming to Quebec theatres on March 17.


Series for all tastes

Because examples of success are all around us, and because not all films benefit from the same promotional support, the programming team at the Rendez-vous has divided the schedule into series. The Box-office and En famille series include the year’s most popular films, while Haïti chéri, Fenêtre sur le monde and Québec pluriel offer a range of perspectives on the world and Quebec’s cosmopolitan culture. With the series Les Rendez-vous des RVCQ, we pay tribute to a selection of must-see films. The Nouveaux regards series offers a different kind of experience to audiences through daring documentaries. Nine feature films by a new generation of filmmakers will be showcased in the Premier rendez-vous series. Salut l’artiste! and Visions d’auteurs respectively present profiles of artists and films by unique authors. Montréal capitale du livre features documentaries about books and writers, while Premières Doc premieres eight documentary films. Finally, for night owls, every evening will finish with an inviting selection of shorts, starting at 9:30 p.m.

Enticing 5-à-7

In order to kick off ten evenings of free activities, the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois invites the audience to feel at home by tasting Quebec wine and products from the “terroir”, offered by the Rendez-vous and presented by an expert from the SAQ. In a newly redesigned space created by Récu Pier (Pier Lefebvre) and made entirely from recycled materials, the Bistro SAQ invites local and visiting film lovers to come and discuss Quebec’s hot filmmaking scene. For the first time, film clips will be projected on the walls of the Bistro, a visual atmosphere created by ILU, a playful group of VJ-projectionists. On February 18, the Québec en cinémascope 5-à-7 will feature a discussion on the future of cinema and Quebec City filmmakers. On February 19, Super 8 will come out of the shadow and take the spotlight, to the delight of fans of vintage images. The February 20 5-à-7, hosted by Franco Nuovo of Radio-Canada, Radio 1, will focus on Quebec City’s cinema and the issue of the durability of its success. On February 21, Vidéo Paradiso invites you to visit its mobile training and video production studio for young people in the streets, and to attend a presentation of these high-quality productions. On February 22, Louis-Georges Girard will take us behind the scenes of the art of dubbing. On February 23, Robert Morin will exchange his views of Quebec cinema with the great cinephile Robert Daudelin, who ran the Cinémathèque québécoise for 30 years. On February 24, the public has a date with none other than Roy Dupuis, who will be sharing his vision of acting with directors Charles Binamé, Francis Leclerc, and Jeremy Peter Allen. On February 25, happy hour will start at 2 p.m. with the Grand Rendez-vous des indépendants, a discussion on creativity featuring filmmaker René Bail, and aimed at giving the opportunity to celebrate some significant successes.

Exciting Bistro evenings

At 8 p.m., the night is still young. The Bistro SAQ will delight film lovers with a different adventure every evening. Friday, February 17, the Bistro SAQ will shake to the sounds of electronic music by DJ Maüs to celebrate the launch of the soundtrack album of the film Pure. Many artists from the Montreal electronica scene will perform live. The next day, enjoy a screening of shorts by Quebec City filmmakers with Québec, capitale nationale… de l’absurde! February 19 features Minute Moments, an opportunity for all kinds of artists to present three very, very short shorts – 60 seconds each – on the theme of storytelling. On February 20, the SARTEC event features directors Charles Binamé, Éric Tessier and Yves Desgagnés, who will imagine, before our eyes, the direction of an anonymous screenplay. On February 21, the Bistro will be turned into a Swiss chalet for an evening with the Prends ça court spécial suisse short-film event. On February 22, Louis-Georges Girard hosts Doublage Académie, where the audience is invited to take the mike and do some amateur dubbing: get ready for a hilarious evening at the Bistro SAQ! On February 23, the instant video laboratory Kino Kabaret offers the opportunity for the audience to attend a screening of shorts created – from original idea to final product – by director duos made up of an established filmmaker and an exuberant kinoite. On February 24, we get wild and crazy! The C.R.A.Z.Y. Party will take over Bistro SAQ, with DJ FRIGID transporting us with the music of the 60s, 70s and 80s.

A devilish all-nighter

Overnight between Saturday, February 25 and Sunday, February 26, the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois, the Cinémathèque québécoise and the SPASM Festival invite all movie lovers to come experience La Nuit Blanche des Rendez-vous… et de la Cinémathèque!, where Quebec genre cinema will be in the spotlight. The Bistro will be invaded by SPASM’s Quebec-made horror, science-fiction and action shorts. For this hot night, the Claude-Jutra theatre will be transformed into Cinéma L’Amour, complete with Quebec-made softcore! This event is part of the Montreal High Lights Festival’s Montreal All Nighter.

Full film immersion

In fulfilling its objective of supporting and promoting homegrown cinema, this year the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois, in collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada, has given young people from four schools in the Greater Montreal area the opportunity to discover the behind-the-scenes workings of animated filmmaking, thanks to presentations by filmmakers Co Hoedeman (creator of Ludovic the bear) and Patrick Bouchard (whose film Dehors novembre is nominated for this year’s Jutra for best animated film). On February 15-16-17, the movies will be brought to young people to pique their curiosity and encourage the appreciation of arts and culture in our schools.

With the aim of recognizing and furthering the work of skilled film professionals, every year the Rendez-vous connects with the latest developments and offers training sessions for industry professionals. The first workshop, a detailed look at legal deposit, will be held on Monday, February 20, from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Rendez-vous’ Bistro SAQ, located at the Cinémathèque québécoise. On Tuesday, February 21, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., we host a scriptwriting workshop, the Leçon de scénario, for our professionals, focused on French cinema and featuring writer Gilles Taurand (Le Promeneur du Champs-de-Mars), in collaboration with the Festival international des scénaristes de Bourges. The third workshop, to be held on Wednesday, February 22, from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the NFB theatre and presented by Aspraudio and France’s Commission supérieure et technique, will deal with audio in movie trailers, movies and movie theatres. The discussion will be led by René Villeneuve, president of Villeneuve Média Technologies. From 2 to 4 p.m. at the NFB theatre, Technicolor will present a workshop on audio and video media formats in the virtual world. On Thursday, February 23, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Telefilm Canada will turn the Rendez-vous Bistro into a speed-dating session between writers, producers and distributors with Le Grand Flirt and Le Match Parfait. The school environment and copyright will be the subjects of the final workshop on the series on Friday, February 24, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Our most beautiful films...from page to screen

From April 26, 2005, to April 26, 2006, UNESCO designated Montreal as the World Book Capital. In honour of this distinction, you are invited to see Nos plus beaux films… de l’écrit à l’écran, four great cinematic adaptations of Quebec literary masterpieces and two documentaries on Quebec writers. Four free afternoons at the Cinémathèque québécoise on the Claude-Jutra theatre’s Radio-Canada screen at 1 p.m.: Monday, February 20, Les Fous de Bassan by Yves Simoneau, with actor Steve Banner, composer Richard Grégoire and director Yves Simoneau in attendance; Tuesday, February 21, Maria Chapdelaine by Gilles Carle, with Gilles Carle and Chloé Sainte-Marie in attendance; Wednesday, February 22, Le Matou by Jean Beaudin, with composer François Dompierre and actress Monique Spaziani in attendance; February 23, Le Sourd dans la ville by Mireille Danserau, with Mireille Danserau and actress Béatrice Picard in attendance. As part of this event, two landmark documentaries about two important Quebec writers will be shown at the Grande Bibliothèque at 2 p.m.: February 17, Anne Hébert by Jacques Godbout, with Jacques Godbout, director of photography Michel Brault, and actress Sylvie Drapeau in attendance, and Friday, February 24, L’Insoumise by Jeannine Gagné, with Jeannine Gagné in attendance.



Exhibit: Tableaux 1-6, recent portraits

From February 17 to March 5, an exhibit by photographer Jocelyn Michel will be presented at the Cinémathèque québécoise. This exhibit features the familiar faces of Raymond Bouchard, Isabelle Blais, Anne-Marie Cadieux, Marc Messier, and Marie-Chantale Perron, as well as an insightful look at French actor Romain Duris. In this exhibit, Jocelyn Michel looks at the enigmatic and the ambiguous as he watches actors on movie sets in order to make them play new characters, in strange landscapes both natural and urban. He thus constructs “tableaux” featuring actors, inspired both by familiar and unfamiliar scenes. Lighting brings it all together, like in film. (Free admission)

The Rendez-vous and the Jutra Awards

Since the inception of the Jutra Awards gala in 1999, most nominees have been chosen by their peers, but the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois selects the nominees for best documentary, best short film, as well as best animated film.



But the collaboration between the two institutions does not end there. On Saturday, February 18 at 8 p.m. at the Rialto theatre, the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois and the Jutra awards gala will hold a ball in honour of Prix Jutra Hommage-winner Denise Filiatrault. The evening will be a living testimony by film lovers, artists, professionals, and technicians of their appreciation of this towering figure in our cinematic imagination.



Special screenings

The Rendez-vous team would like to bring special attention to several special screenings held at the NFB theatre. Saturday, February 18, the Institut National de l’image et du son (INIS) will celebrate its 10th anniversary. On this occasion, the INIS has selected ten productions from its archives to be presented starting at 2 p.m. On Wednesday, February 22, Le Souffle du désert (des hommes en quête de sens) will be shown at 6 p.m. to celebrate the visit of Swiss producers who participated in this Canada-Switzerland co-production. Finally, in honour of the eagerly awaited launch of a DVD collection featuring the complete works of Michel Brault, Gilles Noël will present the premiere of his film Le Cheval de Troie de l’esthétique on Saturday, February 25, at 4 p.m. This documentary, which is part of the DVD collection, revisits the landmark events in the filmmaker and cinematographer’s dual career path. The screening will be followed by a signing session with Michel Brault.

Denys Desjardins’ Le Direct avant la lettre, which is also included in the DVD set, will have its premiere screening on Saturday, February 18 at 4 p.m.