The Film Imagine an Angel Who Memorized All the Sights and Sounds of a City
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The film Imagine an angel who memorized all the sights and sounds of a city. Imagine them coming to life: busy streets full of people and vehicles, activity at the port, children playing in yards and lanes, lovers kissing in leafy parks. Then recall the musical accompaniment of the past: Charles Trenet, Raymond Lévesque, Dominique Michel, Paul Anka, Willie Lamothe. Groove to an Oscar Peterson boogie. Dream to the Symphony of Psalms by Stravinsky. That city is Montreal. That angel guarding the sights and sounds is the National Film Board of Canada. The combined result is The Memories of Angels, Luc Bourdon’s virtuoso assembly of clips from 120 NFB films of the ’50s and ’60s. The Memories of Angels will charm audiences of all ages. It’s a journey in time, a visit to the varied corners of Montreal, a tribute to the vitality of the city and a wonderful cinematic adventure. It recalls Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire in which angels flew over and watched the citizens of Berlin. It has the same sense of ubiquity, the same flexibility, the sense of dreamlike freedom allowing us to fly from Place Ville- Marie under construction to the workers in a textile factory or firemen at work. Underpinning the film is Stravinsky’s music, representing love, hope and faith. A firefighter has died. The funeral procession makes its way up St. Laurent Boulevard. The Laudate Dominum of the 20th century’s greatest composer pays tribute to him. Without commentary, didacticism or ostentation, the film is a history lesson of the last century: the red light district, the eloquent Jean Drapeau, the young Queen Elizabeth greeting the crowd and Tex Lecor shouting “Aux armes Québécois !” Here are kids dreaming of hockey glory, here’s the Jacques-Cartier market bursting with fresh produce, and the department stores downtown thronged with Christmas shoppers. Look, Morgan’s was still there on St. Catherine, now replaced by The Bay. You may recognize the films that provided these sights: the Jones brothers of Golden Gloves by Gilles Groulx, the church from Les Montréalistes by Denys Arcand. The superb colour shots of modern buildings are from Albédo by Jacques Leduc and Renée Roy. And the gorgeous images of actress Geneviève Bujold, don’t they seem familiar? Yes, they’re from Le temps des amours by Hubert Aquin. Director Luc Bourdon and his editor Michel Giroux have assembled fluid, clear sequences, underlining the beauty of the black-and-white images contrasted with colour ones. The Memories of Angels also showcases the singular beauty of Montreal, its architectural and human wealth and the grandeur of its setting. As the NFB gets ready to celebrate its 70th birthday, The Memories of Angels recalls the talent of the filmmakers who trained their cameras and microphones on the world around them, as well as the amazing ability of an artist to model new material from old. Like today’s DJs and VJs who energize contemporary music and art, Luc Bourdon draws from the fertile source of great Quebec Production stills cinema and recycles the sights and sounds of the past, lending them a new and unexpected texture. The film is a jubilant re-think of time and space, where the ordinary THE ME citizen receives the same tender regard as the famous: Armand Vaillancourt, Félix Leclerc, Monique Mercure, Alfred Desrochers. M ORIES OF ANGELS The Memories of Angels is poetry, fiction, documentary and essay rolled into one. It is also a joyous, touching experience and a collective history whose threads dance in one’s mind long after the closing credits. 2 PRESS KI T Luc Bourdon Director Prolific filmmaker Luc Bourdon is one of Canada’s leading video artists. Over the last 25 years, he has made some fifty works ranging from documentary to drama and experimental pieces. Many of his works, like Ne retenez pas votre souffle (1986), Question de bande (1998), De la parole aux actes (2000) and La grande bibliothèque (2005) focus on the arts and culture. All of his productions draw on the notions of history and memory, themes that also form the crux of The Memories of Angels (2008), Bourdon’s first work for the National Film Board of Canada. Throughout the 1980s, Bourdon gained recognition through singular works that underscored his originality and probing mind, like Distance (1984, co-directed with François Girard), Touei (1985) and The Story of Feniks and Abdullah (1988). These early works heralded the artist’s propensity for poetry in both language and form, Photo: Carl Valiquet and his emphasis on sensations rather than on realistic representation. Plan de fuite/ Flight Plan (1995) and The Memories of Angels eloquently illustrate this. Throughout his multi-faceted career, Bourdon has established himself as a tireless experimenter, an artist who offers up immersive, impressionist worlds (see Classes de maîtres, 2008, his film about the Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique du Québec). His practice is marked by a consistent effort to reshape the moving image through a playful approach to sound and image. He has occasionally departed from the single-channel format to create video installations: his 1986 work Promenades lumières, made with Josette Bélanger, was part of the Cent jours d’art contemporain de Montréal; his 1992 piece Quinto et Hommage consisted of two installations shown at Montreal’s Oboro gallery and elsewhere; and À mille lieux, a site-specific work, showed at the Bonsecours Market as part of the celebrations for Montreal’s 350th anniversary in 1992. Ever ready to engage with other artistic forms, he has also worked in the theatre, notably with René-Daniel Dubois for Michel Garneau’s Guerriers at Espace Go (1997) and Eugène Ionesco’s Exit the King (1999). His consistent, multi-form work earned him the 1998 Bell Canada Award from the Canada Council for the Arts. A noteworthy presence in Quebec film and video, he has long been associated with artist-run centres and arts organizations, notably as a member of Vidéographe from 1982 to 1998 and of Les Films de l’autre from 1990 to 1996. In addition to his film work, he has taught videomaking at various universities since 1994. From 2000 to 2003, he was artistic and executive director of the Festival du nouveau cinéma et des nouveaux médias de Montréal (FCMM). He has also been part of numerous think tanks and has helped organize many video events, including La quinzaine de la vidéo (1989, 1998), Heures exquises! (1993) and School’s Out (1995). THE ME M ORIES OF ANGELS 3 PRESS KI T Yves Bisaillon Executive Producer Yves Bisaillon was born in Montreal and holds a degree in Urban Planning from Université de Montréal and in Communications from Université du Québec à Montréal. After working in television as a journalist and director, notably for Radio-Canada, he joined the NFB as a producer in 1997. His work includes Raymond Klibansky: From Philosophy to Life (FIFA Award 2002), Just Watch Me - Trudeau and the 70’ Generation, La Cueca Sola (best documentary at Hot Docs 2004), The Cabinet of Doctor Ferron (best cultural documentary at Gémeaux 2004) and What Remains of Us (selected at the International Critic’s Week, Cannes 2004; Jutra for best documentary in 2005). His recent productions include Who Shot My Brother? (people’s choice at FNC 2005), Nadia’s Journey (Caméra au poing Award, RIDM 2006) and Medicine Under the Influence (best science and nature documentary, Gémeaux 2006). Photo: Dominic Morissette Colette Loumède Executive Producer After earning a law degree, Colette Loumède decided to work in cinema. Drawn to auteur films, she began working with La Coopérative Vidéoscopique de Montréal, where she stayed for ten years, occupying a variety of positions related to film creation and production. She then moved to the private sector, joining Les Productions du Regard and Synercom Téléproductions (a group of regional producers), following which she became project manager for SODEC (Société de développement des entreprises culturelles du Québec). Between 2002 and 2007, she was executive producer of the NFB French Program’s Documentary Studio A. Thanks to her extensive experience and in-depth knowledge of the industry, she built numerous partnerships with national and international private film production companies, produced or co-produced over 30 films and won many awards. Favouring auteur documentary, Loumède produced or co-produced such documentary features as The Invisible Nation by Richard Desjardins and Robert Monderie, Under the Hood: A Voyage into the World Photo: Dominic Morissette of Torture by Patricio Henriquez (co-produced with Macumba International), The Dark Side of the White Lady by Patricio Henriquez, Driven by Dreams by Serge Giguère (co-produced with Les productions du Rapide-Blanc) and Between Two Notes by Florence Strauss (international co-production with Les Films d’Ici and Amythos Films). In January 2007, Loumède was appointed documentary program director at the Institut national de l’image et du son, where she pursues a parallel career as independent producer. THE ME Christian Medawar Producer M ORIES OF ANGELS Christian Medawar holds a BA in Communications and a master’s degree in History. His 20- odd years of experience in film encompass work in the private sector, mainly in advertising, followed by work in the NFB’s English Program, which he joined in 1990 as production manager and then line producer. In 1998, working with the French Program’s Toronto studio, he worked on the films Just Watch Me: Trudeau and the ‘70s Generation and No Quick Fix. Christian joined the NFB’s French Program in Montreal in 1999 to work as line producer on such productions as Hubert Reeves: Star Teller and Bacon, the Film.