20 ans de docs et d'amitié
The mission of the Centre d'art et essai de la Cinémathèque québécoise (CAECQ) is to primary program Quebec-made documentaries and independent fiction, as well as international documentaries, animated and foreign films, while encouraging opportunities for meetings between the public and the artists. Its programming is presented in conjunction with the Cinémathèque québécoise’s under the label New releases.
franC doc celebrates two decades of cinema with a selection of short films by franC doc and two other guests, documentaries made with and by old and new friends. Because cinema is an adventure to be enjoyed in good company. A program that traces dozens of collaborations.
This playful documentary by Nicolas Paquet and Tom Jacques stages the monumental dance of the peat vacuum harvester, a gigantic industrial machine conceived in Rivière-du-Loup. On top of a dramatic soundtrack composed with invented instruments, workers are busy forming large mounds, which are seen in all their aesthetic splendor through the eyes of the two creators. A nod to the NFB film De la tourbe et du restant, shot in the peat bogs of the Bas-Saint-Laurent during the 1970s.
Using Super 8 footage shot over 45 years ago, the short film Mecánicos piratas de Lima is a deeply poetic journey into a timeless past.
In 1999, the Gaspesia Paper Mill closes down, letting most of the region's population withour employment. Nine years later, the community still struggles to recover its way. What is left of Chandler, a town that has lost its economic motor and its natural resources? Greetings from Gaspesia shows the harsh poetry of daily lives imbued with crushed dreams, regret and the inhabitants' need for ideals.
Sugar Shack Tales unfolds the stories of those solitary men who keeps the spring ritual alive. They run the buckets and boil the maple sap in their beautiful and old shacks surrounded by a mystical atmosphere.
About FranC doc
Since 2003, FranC doc has been producing documentary films that take a contemporary look at the realities of rural life. From Île Verte to Lutsel K'é, via Tadoussac and Malartic, our creations contribute to the necessary dialogue about our relationship with the territories we inhabit, which nourish us and await future generations.
Founded by Karina Soucy and Nicolas Paquet, this independent company is based in Saint-Alexandre de Kamouraska, in the Bas-du-Fleuve region. Films produced include L'acte de la beauté, Esprit de cantine and Verdoyant pure laine. The fruit of the joint labors of talented teams who love documentaries, these works have won the hearts of Quebecers and allowed those from elsewhere to discover a little of who we are.
