Sur L'Adamant
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.
Winner of the Golden Bear, Berlinale 2023
L'Adamant is a psychiatric day center, housed on a barge docked on the Seine in the heart of Paris. Attached to a hospital, the center welcomes outpatients and engages with them in a process of empowerment and acceptance, notably through music, painting and body expression workshops. Filmmaker Nicolas Philibert went to meet Adamant's patients. What we see is the fruit of his many visits, during which he gained the trust of these wounded, highly medicated individuals. In front of his camera, they form a kind of disenchanted, resilient chorus.
Nicolas Philibert
Nicolas Philibert is a French filmmaker. Winner of numerous awards and distinctions, he is one of France's leading documentary filmmakers. With La ville Louvre (1990), it was the first time a major museum agreed to unveil its backstage to a film crew. He followed this with Le pays des sourds (1992), Un animal, des animaux (1995), La moindre des choses (1997), and Qui sait? (1999). His next film, Être et Avoir (2002), was awarded the Prix Louis Delluc, the César for Best Editing, and numerous other awards, enjoying immense success in France and around the world. He received the Golden Bear at the 2023 Berlinale for Sur l'Adamant, the first part of a triptych devoted to patients and caregivers in Paris’ Central Psychiatric Group, which will be followed by Averroès & Rosa Parks and La machine à écrire et autres sources de tracas (2024).
Photo : Michel Crotto
