Percé - A Place to Dream

La plage et le quai de Percé
photo : Danilo Villaflor A village of culture, creativity and stunning natural surroundings, Percé acquired over the course of the 20th century an enviable reputation, attracting many well-known artists from Quebec and elsewhere, thanks in part to the vision and sensitivity of the Gaspé sculptor and painter Suzanne Guité. She established a multidisciplinary arts centre during the heady era of political and cultural turmoil that was the Quiet Revolution, which gave birth to the modern Quebec of the 1960s.

In these beginnings of the 21st century and these beginnings of the new year of 2009, this cinema event offers a look back at where we have come from in the form of a unique artistic experience that welcomes not only the residents of the Gaspé region, but the world at large!

This second NUIT DU CINÉMA À PERCÉ is a dream of hope and a heartfelt cry for art and nature as forces that can help us become attuned to the history yet to come, in all its forms, guided by some truly inspiring contemporary artists and filmmakers. This night-time celebration of art is an invitation to a journey within, to a happening that is as unbridled as the natural surroundings of the vibrant Gaspé landscape of mountains, ocean and wind.
The films selected for this outdoor event are all singular, diverse and rich in meaning. They convey emotion and laughter and range from the invisible to wild dreams, human drama, sorrow, heartbreaking stories of love, poetic tangents, new visions of the world and presentations of boundless landscapes.

Le Rocher Percé, Photo : Danilo Villaflor

 

Situation géographique de Percé au Québec

For one night these films will create a temporary, ephemeral architecture attuned to nature, an occasion to discover stories – moving, musical, silent, dazzling, magical and endearing – that place each spectator in touch with a vibrant celebration of art in contact with nature.


Our sincerest thanks to all the members of our team and to all our partners who have made this second Nuit du Cinéma à Percé possible.


François Cormier
General and artistic director

Press release

LA NUIT DU CINÉMA À PERCÉ –
BACK AGAIN WITH ANOTHER EXCITING EVENT!

Percé, december 16, 2008

 

Percé and its iconic rock will be home once again to the second edition of LA NUIT DU CINÉMA À PERCÉ – SATURDAY JANUARY 17, 2009, 7 p.m. to Midnight.

This outdoor presentation near the beach of films projected on the wall of the historic La Neigère building in the heart of Bonaventure Island and Percé Rock Park will include mulled wine, fire barrels and a festive ambiance! Admission to this unique cinematic event is free of charge. Take your place under the stars and enjoy a thrilling cinema event in a larger-than-life setting! At the first edition in January 2008, hundreds of spectators showed up for the inaugural outdoor Nuit du cinéma event in Percé.

This nocturnal presentation will consist of animated films, documentaries and dramas. The films are projected directly onto the wall of the LA NEIGÈRE building, a former warehouse used for storing ice for the cod fishing industry. It is located on the waterfront near the wharf in Percé.

Among the movies presented that evening will be that masterpiece of Inuit culture and legends ATANARJUAT, THE FAST RUNNER. Directed by ZACHARIAS KUMUK, it won the Caméra d’Or award in Cannes in 2001 and stars the great Inuit actor Natar Ungalaaq (Necessities of Life, Quebec, 2008). Filmed in the community of Igloolik in Nunavut, this powerful and sensitive film is based on an ancient legend of the nomadic Inuit peoples. This tour de force by the director led to international recognition and awards.

ATANARJUAT will be preceded by HOW TO BUILD AN IGLOO, a film by Douglas Wilkinson. Produced in 1949 by the National Film Board of Canada, it shows two Inuit building an igloo in less than 90 minutes. The architecture of the igloo calls for adherence to precise rules regarding choice of site, the cutting and assembly of snow blocks and proper ventilation for a snug and cosy refuge!

QUEBEC AND WORLD CINEMA

The Nuit du cinéma program also includes several short films, including the recent NEXT FLOOR by Quebec director DENIS VILLENEUVE, which has won several awards including Best Short Film at the International Critics’ Week at Cannes in May 2008. Also on the program is the film MIRRORS by Montreal filmmaker ÉTIENNE DESROSIERS, a poetic take on an adolescent’s homosexual awakening. The presentation includes the short film LES JOURS, starring GILDOR ROY and directed by the talented young Quebec filmmaker MAXIME GIROUX. Winner of the Short Cuts Canada award at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, it deals with the theme of a father’s desire for revenge. 

Also on the program is NOCTURNE (1980), by the celebrated Danish director LARS VON TRIER. This student film foreshadows the feature film that would make him famous, namely THE ELEMENT OF CRIME (1984), which inaugurated a long series of successful films leading to the Palme d’Or award in Cannes in 2000 for DANCER IN THE DARK.

JOURNEY TO THE STARS

In addition to a stargazing activity organized in conjunction with the Baie des Chaleurs astronomy club, LA NUIT DU CINÉMA will be presenting several films in honour of the festivities marking the International Year of Astronomy (2009). Decreed by UNESCO in recognition of our shared heritage of the universe, the IYA is designed to help the citizens of the world rediscover their place in the universe and to highlight global cooperation for peaceful purposes.

This section begins with the first science fiction film, A TRIP TO THE MOON, by French filmmaker GEORGES MELIES. Made in 1902, it was inspired by the famous novel by Jules Verne From the Earth to the Moon. This silent film showcases Méliès’ talents as an illusionist. It tells the tale of six scientists, members of an astronomy club, who journey to the moon. They build a space capsule that is fired from a cannon and lands in the eye of the Man in the Moon.

Those who love looking at the stars will no doubt enjoy a film by the American director JEANNE LIOTTA. Entitled OBSERVANDO EL CIELO, it will be making its Gaspé première. Previous showings include screenings at the WHITNEY BIENNIAL in New York. Her film features more than seven years’ worth of field recordings from her astronomical observations, everything from accelerated night skies in over a dozen distinct locations to stars streaking by or stars frozen in time, enriched by a soundtrack that is an ultra high frequency collage of broadcasts, shortwaves and interference – the sound of the universe.

Another Gaspé première is SKHIZEIN, LOIN DE MOI by the young French director JÉRÉMY CLAPIN. It received awards at both the recent Festival du Film Francophone in Namur, Belgium and the annual Sommets du Cinéma d’Animation at the Cinémathèque québécoise. This well-designed and directed animated film explores the fantastic universe of a character who flees from reality after being hit by a 15-tonne meteorite.

PRIDE OF PLACE TO ANIMATED FILMS

Not to be missed at this event is the Oscar-winning masterpiece of animation THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA, a Russia/Canada/Japan co-production directed by ALEXANDER PETROV. Inspired by the Ernest Hemingway novel of the same name (which was written in Cuba), the film consists of some 29,000 oil paintings used magnificently to recount the fable of an old Cuban fisherman and a young boy named Manolin.

Another eagerly awaited animated film at the LA NUIT DU CINÉMA event is the hilarious film THE TOURIST by the young Canadian director MALCOLM SUTHERLAND, which features a collection of zany characters on the beach under the blazing sun.

Another Gaspé première is the award-winning animated film SAINTE BARBE, directed by CÉDRIC LOUIS and CLAUDE BARRAS. It is the story of an imaginative, bald little boy named Léon who loves the bushy black beard of his grandfather, which seems to be endowed with magical powers. The film won a “Best of Sessions” audience award in Australia at the MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FILM FESTIVAL (2008).

DOCUMENTARIES

The Nuit du Cinéma event will also feature two documentaries dealing with the theme of local identity. The first is PENSER EN AMONT, by two young Rimouski filmmakers, GENEVIÈVE B. GENEST and NICOLAS MARTEL. It is a sensitive portrait of Daniel St-Pierre, a longboat builder in the Lower St. Lawrence region – an artisan, a farmer, a thinker and a lover of nature.

Another realistic and clear-headed film, produced in association with the Wakiponi Mobile project and the National Film Board of Canada, is SASKASHTEU USSINUN by MELYSA PINETTE and KANAPEUSH VOLLANT. It relates the difficulties faced by young Aboriginals living on reservations in Quebec and their attachment to nature.

EXPERIMENTAL FILMS

There will also be a special program of 16mm experimental films: a collaboration with the Quebec program planner and director KARL LEMIEUX, 2008 winner of the Prends ça court ! event for his film PASSAGE.

LA NUIT DU CINÉMA À PERCÉ IS FREE OF CHARGE AND OPEN TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC.

LA NUIT DU CINÉMA À PERCÉ IS PRESENTED BY
LES PERCÉIDES - FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL DE CINÉMA ET D’ART DE PERCÉ

WWW.PERCEIDES.CA

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