From July 14 to August 7, 2011, Montreal is awash in Asian and fantastic cinema thanks to the Fantasia festival, this year celebrating its 15th edition. Four short films distributed by Vidéographe will be shown in the festival from August 5 to 7 as part of the program Le fantastique week-end du court métrage québécois.
Anne Émond’s Sophie Lavoie will be screened on August 5 at 7:00 p.m. This short film depicts the stress that a young woman can feel when undergoing a medical examination.
Consult Anne Émond’s artist’s sheet +
That same day, August 5, at 9:20 p.m., audiences can also discover Jules Saulnier’s film The Den. This video was made entirely out of images found on the meet-up website Chatroulette.com.
Consult Jules Saulnier’s artist’s sheet +
On August 6 at 1:00 p.m. Anne Sikorski’s Missing will be shown. This fiction film tells the story of Alice, who wakes up, naked and confused, in a forest. Her instincts tell her the way to follow out of the forest. Gradually, she remembers what happened to her, dealing her a body blow. Her understanding of reality is then torn asunder.
Consult Anne Sikorski’s artist’s sheet +
Finally, Alexandra Grimanis’ Lucky Girl will be screened on the same program. Certain events in our lives seem innocent enough when they happen, yet we are sometimes haunted by what might have happened in other circumstances. Lucky Girl tells the story of one of these decisive moments, when everything can get turned upside down.
Consult Alexandra Grimanis’ artist’s sheet +
For more information:
http://www.fantasiafestival.com/2011/en/
A WORD FROM THE DISTRIBUTOR
What can the short films Sophie Lavoie (Anne Émond), Lucky Girl (Alexandra Grimanis), Missing (Anna Sikorski) and The Den (Jules Saulnier) have in common? Without a doubt it is the fascination they give rise to, but also the unease and anxiety that unavoidably exudes from them: palpable, subtle, sly, lurking in and all around them, real, imagined, invisible, virtual.
An unease sets in, first here and then there, creeping and ambivalent, which we cannot escape, which you would like to flee, but which clings to you, holds you in its almost obsessive power, nourished by the need to know, the desire for familiarity.
Viewers will find what they are looking for in these present-day topics handled with finesse and surrounded in mystery, a pervasive fear of the unknown or curiosity for a perversion in denial—if only as the troubling and unconscious result, perhaps, of the mirror effect, of a dark side of our souls, if we have one, pinned in somewhere between our mind and body, lying dormant within each of us.
Four personal styles, each different from the next, by established and emerging artists. Four films with an individual look and four captivating and inquiring subjects which invite introspection.
Four films to see and see again during the fantastic weekend of Quebec cinema at the Fantasia festival.