André Loiselle

An Interview with François Macerola, President and CEO of la Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC)

Appointed by the Conseil des ministres, François N. Macerola is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC) and sits on the SODEC Board of Directors. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Fonds d’investissement de la culture et des communications (FICC) and Fonds capital culture Québec (FCCQ). He officially began his duties at SODEC on November 30, 2009. Macerola has an unparalleled background in the cultural sector. Before assuming his current position with SODEC, he was the Executive Producer of Cirque du Soleil, for which he had previously served as the Vice President for Business and Legal Affairs. During his tenure with Cirque du Soleil, he also fulfilled the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors at Place des Arts for a four-year term. Macerola has forged a solid reputation within the cinema and television industries. After practicing law for a few years, he was appointed the Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson of the National Film Board of Canada. Other previous positions include Vice Chair of the Board of Directors at Malofilm Distribution Inc. and Executive Director and subsequently Chair of the Board of Directors of Telefilm Canada. In addition, he oversaw, on behalf of the federal government, a study on the definition of Canadian content in film and television productions and, on behalf of the Québec government, a study on the production and financing of feature films.

Special Issue of the American Review of Canadian Studies on Québec Cinema

Québec cinema has arrived. In a way reminiscent of the emergence of Québec literature in the 1960s, it has crossed a threshold. Québec’s literary history during this period can be illustrated by a list of important indicators, spurred by what was perceived as a national cultural emergency: small publishing houses started to grow and became more ambitious; the educational curriculum and literary canons were established; academic and journalistic criticism became institutionalized; literary prizes were endowed; and international recognition of a few particularly successful novels and plays followed. Somewhat later, new forms and genres, such as science-fiction novels, mysteries, and children’s literature, began to appear. A similar process has now taken place for Québec cinema. For better or for worse, the period of initial effervescence and experimentation, often artisanal and idealistic if not ideological, is past. There was once mostly goodwill and imagination (and very little money), but the industry has consolidated throughout the last decade. Cultural models of development borrowed from Europe include state funding and agency screening processes; those borrowed from United States include a growing awareness of market imperatives and investment value. Producers and distributors alike are thinking ahead about digital platforms. New genres, such as action thrillers and horror films, are reaching larger audiences. The public recognizes its favorite actors and follows them from film to film. Québec films often figure on the list of winners at prestigious festivals. Indeed, a Québec film has been a finalist in the Oscar category for Best Foreign-language Film for three consecutive years (Incendies in 2011; Monsieur Lazhar in 2012; Rebelle in 2013). Perhaps the most glamorous sign of Québec cinema’s emergence on the international scene was Denys Arcand’s winning the 2003 Best Foreign-language Oscar for Les Invasions barbares. After two unsuccessful nominations in the 1980s—Le Déclin de l’empire américain (1986) and Jésus de Montréal (1989)—Arcand’s Academy Award win in the early 2000s signaled that the Québec film industry had finally arrived. With a 22-minute standing ovation at Cannes and two of its most prestigious awards (best actress and best screenplay), rave reviews at home and abroad, more than

An interview with Carolle Brabant Executive Director of Telefilm Canada

35 million at the box office worldwide (a record for a Québec film), a César for best French film (Les Invasions is a Canada–France co-production), and of course the Oscar, Arcand’s sequel to Le Déclin de l’empire américain can safely be hailed as the greatest success of Québec cinema. This isn’t to say that Les Invasions barbares is considered the supreme artistic accomplishment in French–Canadian film history. Generally, the classics of Québec cinema—Claude Jutra’s Mon Oncle Antoine (1971), Michel Brault’s Les Ordres (1974), and Francis Mankiewicz’s Les bons débarras (1980)—rank higher on lists of “best Québec films ever made” than Les Invasions barbares. Nor is it the most popular domestic film among the Québécois

Tales of Terror in Québec Popular Cinema: The Rise of the French Language Horror Film since 2000

Carolle Brabant is a Chartered Accountant by training, and was hired as an auditor by Telefilm Canada in 1990. Subsequently, she became its director of finance and administration and served as acting executive director for six months in 2004. She was permanently appointed to Telefilm’s top post in 2010, and since that time, she has received several honors and awards for her leadership, including being named to The Hollywood Reporter’s 2011 list of “13 Female Power-Players Who Rule the World.” In 2012, she was selected to receive the Canadian Women in Communications Leadership Excellence Award. Brabant’s achievements include contributing to the successful partnership between her organization and the Canadian Television Fund [renamed the Canadian Media Fund] whose programs are administered by Telefilm.1 A skilled communicator, Brabant’s presentation of Telefilm’s 2011–2014 corporate plan, Fostering Cultural Success, at the Prime Time in Ottawa annual conference in March of 2012, is available on YouTube (http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=B2zLCpXQM_c).

Stages of Reality: Theatricality in Cinema

Before the 2000s, the horror film was virtually non-existent in Canadas Francophone film industry. Over the past decade, however, the situation has changed drastically. The recent emergence of a crop of successful French-language horror films, including Éric Tessiers Sur le seuil (2003) and 5150 Rue des Ormes (2009), Philippe Gagnons Le Poil de la bête (2010), Daniel Robys La Peau blanche (2004), Daniel Grou-Podzs Les 7 jours du talion (2010), Robin Auberts Saints- Martyrs-des-Damnés (2005), Pascal Laugiers Martyrs (2008) and Jean Beaudins Le Collectionneur (2002), manifests a multiplicity of important transformations in Québec cinema in particular, and Québec society in general. This article suggests that the Québec horror film bears witness simultaneously to: (1) the productive diversification of the industry in the province; (2) the rise of filmic adaptations of popular literature as a viable practice; (3) the development of a critical perspective towards the traditional themes of Québec culture; and (4) the creative potential of co-production. These aspects position the cinematic tale of terror as one of the most informative objects of analysis in contemporary Québec film studies.