Big Bill

Jean-Yves Bigras was a Canadian film director, editor, screenwriter, and producer. He is considered a pioneer in Quebec cinema. Bigras studied at the University of Ottawa, where he participated in the early days of the CKCH radio station. From 1939 to 1942, he served in World War II as part of the Royal Canadian Air Force, and was task with producing the first French-language Canadian radio broadcasts for the recruitment program. After his demobilization, he became one of the first French Canadians to be hired by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in 1943. As an editor and director, he contributed to over thirty documentaries for the institution. He notably participated in the series Canadian Carries On, and the children's medium-length film The Boy Who Stopped Niagara, which introduced him to fiction filmmaking. He was then hired to work for the children's education film section of Renaissance Films. It was there that he got to work on his first feature film, Le gros Bill (1949), co-directed by René Delacroix. He directed fights and log driving action sequences for the film. He then moved on to direct the musical Les lumières de ma ville (1950), followed by La petite Aurore, l’enfant martyre (1952), which was a big hit with audiences and became a staple of early Quebec cinema. In 1953, he began working for Radio-Canada where he became one of its principal directors until his death in 1966.