Among Mountains and Streams
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.
The September 18 screening will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker
Official Selection, 2024 RIDM & 2025 DOXA
In a mysterious forest, far from the borders of the China they’ve left behind, the painter Meng Huang and writer Ma Jian talk about exile, political opposition and artistic creation as a response to oppression and lies. Ma Jian is a dissident and a prominent writer translated into numerous languages that lives in London. Since 2011, he has been unable to return to China, where all of his books are banned. Meng Huang is a renowned painter who lives in Berlin.
Jean-François Lesage
After studying law, Jean-François Lesage began his career as a journalist for Radio-Canada television in Alberta and British Columbia. In 1998, shaken by the discovery of Chinese cinema, he headed to Beijing, where he was to spend six years. This is where he directed his first creative documentary, Sweet Nights Sour Nights (2004). He followed this up with How Can You Tell if the Little Fish Are Happy? (2009) co-directed with his brother Philippe Lesage. Back in Montréal, he then made A Mile End Tale (2013), the closing film at Visions du Réel 2014, followed by A Summer Love (2015), winner of the Grand Prize for Best Canadian Feature at the RIDM. The Hidden River (2017), his fourth feature, won the Special Jury Prize (Canadian feature) at the RIDM. In 2020, his feature Prayer for a Lost Mitten won Best Canadian Documentary at Hot Docs. His most recent documentary feature is Among Mountains and Streams (2024).
