‘The Self-portrait and other ruins.’ Reflections on the filmmaking of Louise Bourque

At this session, we will look at two forms of the self-portrait in ruins, taking two experimental films by Acadian filmmaker Louise Bourque as a point of departure. Though Self-Portrait Post-Mortem (2002) and Autoportrait/Self-portrait post-partum (2017) were made almost 15 years apart, both films exploit the materiality of the medium, the former having been buried, and the latter developed by hand using a variety of artisan techniques. More than anything, these films explore different ways through which the filmmaker could look at herself: from beyond the grave, so to speak, or through the prism of a relationship break-up that she wishes to exorcize.