As part of our Ciné-club, Pix Films and Le Labo are partnering to introduce Torontonians to the work of artist-director Martin Rodolphe Villeneuve.
This Quebec artist first started out as a scriptwriter and cartoonist. His art is an extension of his rural universe, which he recreates in his own way. In recent years, he has distinguished himself as co-writer of the film Les ramoneurs cérébraux, by Patrick Bouchard. In 2009, he undertook a complex shooting on the lighthouse located at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and Saguenay rivers. His medium-length film, entitled Haut-fond Prince, was selected by several festivals. The films Notre-Dame-des-Monts, Qu’en ce jour je meure, Éléonore and Chants de l’aube are also part of his work.
During the evening of March 03, 2023, the public will have the opportunity to discover four films of Martin Rodolphe Villeneuve playing between autobiographical passages and spaces of the countryside. Recalling the time spent in « his land » and the poetic life that takes place there, his films want to transmit the memories of his past and the life that surrounds him with a simple language. Invested in the documentary style, Martin’s cinema is contemplative in order to give his characters time to grow in space. After the screening of four of his short films, Martin Rodolphe Villeneuve will talk about his work. Since 2001, he has directed a dozen films, in animation, documentary and fiction.
Le Labo is proud to support Toronto’s bilingual artistic community and in particularly the PIX FILM collective, which is a micro-cinema, a gallery, a work and study space for artists with a multiple practice and interests in the visual and media arts.
SCREENINGS:
HAUT-FOND PRINCE (43 min- 2011)
Un romancier, André Bertov, cherche à s’inspirer de la légendaire tempête de Noël 1966, lorsque des vagues de 45 pieds de haut ont secoué le phare appelé Le Pilier et traumatisé ses trois gardiens. André cherche à écrire »en contexte » une nouvelle mettant en scène les survivants de la tempête. Le capitaine Dupuis amène André, en bateau, au phare, où il s’isole pendant un mois, avec les papiers de ses recherches. Au fil des jours, le clapotis des eaux et les bruits du Pilier, l’évocation du drame de 1966, la monotonie, l’isolement, le brouillard, les cris des mouettes lui font perdre ses médicaments et ses repères…
QU’EN CE JOUR JE MEURE / On this day I die (18 min – 2017)
Un homme subit les contrecoups d’un acte posé récemment. Confronté à sa conscience, que choisira-t-il de faire?
Éleonore (31 min – 2018)
Un grand-père
Un printemps à la campagne
Une vieille demeure
Une douleur cicatrise
Chants de L’aube (12 min – 2021)
Une professeure de piano reconnaît dans la musique l’écho de son drame.
Martin R. Villeneuve
Born in Rivière-du-Moulin, Saguenay, Martin Rodolphe studied painting in several studios in Chicoutimi, alternating between charcoal and acrylic. He gradually abandoned painting and enrolled in 1996 in the interdisciplinary art program at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC) – concentration in film and video. He has taken several training courses at the National Film Board (NFB) and has also participated in writing workshops as part of Telefilm Canada’s « Écrire au long » program at the Institut national de l’Image et du son (INIS). Trained as a screenwriter and documentary filmmaker, he directed several works in different genres, including film studies and essays, before finding his true niche: dreamlike drama. In 2009, he undertook a perilous shoot on the Haut-fond Prince lighthouse located at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and Saguenay rivers. Selected by several festivals, this film entitled Haut-fond Prince (2011) earned him the Bourse de création at the Regard international sur le court métrage festival in Saguenay in 2012. In the same poetic vein, he directed Notre-Dame-des-Monts, Qu’en ce jour je meure, Éléonore, Chants de l’aube and Et si tu m’entends. He is currently preparing his first feature film De profundis.