Dark Suns
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.
Presented as part of the soirées pixelleX
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker, Julien Elie, hosted by Bruno Dequen
Winner of the Grand Prize for Best Canadian Feature, RIDM 2018
An elusive evil has taken over Mexico. Twenty years ago, the screams of young women echoed in the northern regions of the country, victims of unprecedented misogynistic fury. Behind the volcanoes of the capital, hundreds more suffered the same fate in recent years. Elsewhere, farmers, students as well as travellers disappear from roads while several journalists are gunned down. This climate of impunity opens the door to all abuses, and the entire country lives in terror. Some raise their voices, denouncing and investigating, while others, armed with shovels and trying to avoid ambushes, look for the missing people. As testimonies and discoveries add up, the truth slowly emerges.
Julien Elie
In 2002, Julien Elie directed his first documentary about the death penalty in the USA, followed by a medium length documentary filmed in East Africa the same year. After taking a fifteen year hiatus from cinema he returned in 2018 with his film Dark Suns. The epic story about the wave of violence that has affected Mexico for years won multiple awards and distinctions (CPH DOX, FICUNAM, Hamburg Film Festival, RIDM) and was presented in nearly sixty festivals worldwide. In 2023, La Guardia Blanca, a second feature length documentary filmed in Mexico, addressing the devastation of landscapes and territories by private companies was released. Shifting Baselines, his latest film, has had a remarkable run with selections in national and international festivals, notably Visions du Réel, Hot Docs, DokuFest, Festival du nouveau cinéma, and DOC NYC, where it won the Grand Jury Prize of the Kaleidoscope competition.
Bio: pixelleX
Photo: Valérian Mazataud
