Dossier

Julia Minne: Nowadays, how important is it for you to be able to show your first productions? Like you said, Nicole, they’re not the most polished or well-known of your films, but your boldness and your assertive feminist artistic stance are already visible in them.

Nicole Giguère: Do you mean Chaperons rouges and Une nef… et ses sorcières, for example?

JM: I’m talking about some of the others that the Cinémathèque also transferred to digital. I include them in your filmography. Those videos are just as important as your more recent productions.

Lynda Roy: That’s because they were the first light video works to bring women into the world of video and film production. It’s like watching a baby’s first steps. Also, they reflect an era of transformation. That’s why they’re so important.

Helen Doyle: Why show them? I’m working on other things now. We’re all working on other things. We’ve all moved on. It’s because you did some of the programming for this edition of the Montréal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) that I realized, “Oh, right! We did that!” You realize there are people who react positively, with admiration. But I’m still moving forward. Those old productions are history. They came and went. They might not have done as well as they could. But there’s also an element of sweet revenge in being able to say, “You see that? We did pretty well with nothing at all, didn’t we?” [Laughs]

HD: And so was the reception. People asked a lot of questions. Just like back in the day, but in comfortable, adequate conditions. Much better than the ones we had in the cafés. But you also have to realize that we just didn’t have the means back then. I’m thinking of Denys Arcand. When he was interviewed about Jesus of Montreal, he said, “Finally, I was able to have a foreground and a background in a film. I didn’t just shoot someone in two dimensions. Because I had an actual budget.” That makes me want to cry! We never considered doing things that way. We didn’t have those means.

JM: No, for sure. What I want to tell you about the reception today is that an article was published following what we did with the Simone de Beauvoir Centre at the Cinémathèque in January 2023. It was written by McGill academics, about what you said at the conference. What I’m saying is that showing those films today has a real impact right now, on young students who are interested in the feminist movements, in cinema, who want to know about their history. They have a significant impact. You broached topics that are still relevant today. Unfortunately.

JF: Yes, unfortunately. But you know, it’s only now that the younger generations are paying attention to what we did. Because for a long, long time, we no longer existed. It’s thanks to you, Julia, and to your generation, which is suddenly rediscovering those years, the activism, and those creations. Not just at Vidéo Femmes, but in other areas, as well.

NG: And there’s also the Tënk platform, which is helping people discover older films.

HD: And Réalisatrices Équitables, also. All of those things have a role in it, I think.

NG: Yes, because young women want to see what others have done before them, where it came from, where it started, etc.

JM: Yes, in terms of reactivation. People also feel a need to get back to their roots, to question history. And these days, I think it’s more important than ever to have cultural references. I also admire the fact that you’re all so close-knit. The way I see you, and what you convey in this interview, is that you have always remained strongly connected to each other. That’s a rare thing.

JF: That’s true. We’re like a family. Like touring families, theatre families, show business families. We’re a family.

HD: And those bonds have lasted for me, which is important. When I first arrived in Montréal, I worked with Michèle Pérusse. She’s the other person I worked with a lot. She was like a partner. She was very important to me. When you look at her work, you see some very, very great things, including the film L’humeur à l’humour, which she co-directed with Nicole.

NG: Yes. Because after Vidéo Femmes, in addition to co-directing L’humeur à l’humour with Michèle Pérusse, I also worked with you, Helen, as an assistant on some of your films.

HD: So even after Vidéo Femmes, those connections stood the test of time.

JM: Yes. But you could have rejected them back by saying, “No, I don’t want to be a part of it.”

HD: No, not to that point. We would have been punishing ourselves, in a way.

NG: All our meetings and all your questions allowed us to sit back and reflect . . . Because as Helen said, we just go from one film to the next. We’re busy people. We’re always busy doing something. We’re not thinking about what we did 40 years ago, or how important it is today, or how significant it was for the times. Thinking about it, digging through the articles, rereading things, looking at the photos, seeing all that, you realize there are plenty of subjects that are still relevant, and that may still be interesting to people. I never would have expected to say, “Yes, that video from the ‘80s needs to be seen.” When you’re in the thick of it, you don’t tend to take a step back. You do so when you have the time, or when something like your research project comes along and forces you to.

LR: It was something of a gift, as well. For me, it was a real pleasure to watch those films again, to see those archives. I greatly enjoyed seeing all the girls again. I enjoyed talking about all those things. If you work in the creative arts, or in communications, it’s because there’s something inside you that needs to give, to leave something behind, to document things. Even if what you leave behind is small, like Helen said, it’s still important. And the fact that it’s now enshrined in a Quebec institution feels good.

NG: What a lovely conclusion!