Faded Photograph + A Woman and Her Car
When a film's subject hits close to home, it can be a challenge for adventurous filmmakers whose ambition goes beyond simply telling a story. Through recent examples from Québécois documentary cinema, we explore the practice of intimacy as it unfolds on screen.
Faded Photograph is a documentary in which the filmmaker traces the existence of her father, who died when she was 12, through a montage of his memoirs. From family films shot by her paternal grandfather and her father between 1954 and 1998, and the diaries he wrote during his life, the director tells the story of an ordinary man whose personal memory echoes a collective memory : one of a generation bursting out of Quebec's Grande Noirceur in which freedom is also synonym of disorientation. Thus begins a dialogue marked by nostalgia, between joyful videos and tormented writings, which soon becomes universal.
December the 31th, 2003. Lucie decides to write a letter to the man who abused her from the age of 8 to 12 years old and resolves herself to bring it to him in person, wherever he may be.
Fanie Pelletier
Fanie Pelletier is a Montreal-based director and editor. She holds a major in Social Sciences, a BA in Film Production and an MA in Film Studies. In 2016, she directed the short documentary Faded Photograph (Photo jaunie, 2017), which was selected at several festivals including Clermont-Ferrand and won some awards. In 2017, she directed the short documentary film Wanderers (Vagabonds) for CBC. Bloom (Jouvencelles, 2022) is her first feature documentary film. The film won the best debut feature film award at the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival.
Loïc Darses
Loïc Darses is a Quebec writer-director. His films include the award-winning shorts A Woman and Her Car (2015), which was selected for the Sundance and Rotterdam film festivals among others, and Fuckin’ Coffin (2021). He made the striking Where the Land Ends (2019), his first documentary feature, at the NFB, where he also directed Scratches of Life: The Art of Pierre Hébert (2024), a tribute to the work of this tireless animation pioneer.
