The Auction
The farming world is often torn between age-old traditions and industrialisation, the passing of the torch and technological change, family-run businesses and corporate conglomerates, the rural communities it inhabits and the cities it feeds, environmental challenges and the drive for profitability... All these issues are reflected in this program, which highlights how many recent films from Québec and France have looked at the agricultural world, capturing its essential, resilient, and sometimes painful aspects.
Winner of the SACD Award of the Critics' Week, 2013 Cannes Film Festival
Gaby owns a farm on which he raises lambs: Bouchard & Sons Farm. But he has no sons. Rather, he has two daughters that he raised like princesses and who live far away, in the big city. One day, the oldest asks him for some financial support so she doesn’t end up losing her house. Gaby decides to liquidate his beloved farm.
Sébastien Pilote
Sebastien Pilote, born in Chicoutimi, is a Québec filmmaker. In 2007, his short film Dust Bowl Ha! Ha! was selected at the Locarno International Film Festival. He wrote and directed his first feature film, Le vendeur (2011), a psychological drama with social overtones that portrays the slow decline of remote rural communities. The film premiered at Sundance and won the FIPRESCI Prize at the San Francisco International Film Festival. In 2013, he received the SACD Award for Le démantèlement at Cannes' Critics' Week, as well as the Best Film Award at the 2014 Trophées francophones du cinéma. He also directed La disparition des lucioles (2018) and Maria Chapdelaine (2021). Sebastien Pilote is the co-founder of the Festival REGARD with Éric Bachand.
Photo: Collections de la Cinémathèque québécoise
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Le démantèlement : un père sans terre
« Ce qui m'intéresse, c'est de faire des histoires sur de petites fins du monde », lance en entrevue le cinéaste Sébastien Pilote à propos de son film Le démantèlement. En effet, cette histoire d'un fermier qui vend sa terre pour le bien de ses filles fait écho à la fragilité et aux épreuves du monde agricole québécois...
