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Finissant(e)s, a snapshot of grad night by Rafa?l Ouellet, is among the films premi?ring at the festival.
Photograph by: RVCQ , .
MONTREAL - It?s like throwing a birthday party for yourself. While Quebec cinema is being celebrated around the world, there?s no better place to f?te the quality and diversity of our province?s annual film output than Les Rendez-vous du cin?ma qu?b?cois (RVCQ).
The festival, which kicked off its 31st edition Thursday night and continues through March 3, takes a comprehensive look back at virtually all the important movies made here over the past year and offers a handful of premi?res to lead us into the year ahead. More than 300 films will be shown, including 41 fiction features, 79 documentaries, 155 shorts and 23 student films.
From Kim Nguyen?s acclaimed child soldier saga Rebelle (up for an Oscar for best foreign-language film on Sunday night) to Xavier Dolan?s transgenderism odyssey Laurence Anyways (recently adopted by Gus Van Sant, who is co-producing the film?s U.S. release); via Bernard ?mond?s existential modern family drama Tout ce que tu poss?des; Magnus Isacsson?s final documentary, Ma vie r?elle, about disadvantaged youth in Montreal North; Yung Chang?s boxing doc China Heavyweight and taste travelogue The Fruit Hunters; Ana?s Barbeau-Lavalette?s Gaza thriller Inch?Allah (recent winner of the FIPRESCI Prize in the Panorama section at the Berlin Film Festival); to Michael Dowse?s hit hockey comedy Goon ? it?s all there.
?Everyone has talked about the crise in Quebec cinema,? said RVCQ director Dominique Dugas. ?There?s no crise. It?s going well. It?s more like a crisis at the box office ? people are not going to see (Quebec) films. But it?s very interesting to look at all the films released this year, at the quality of cinema in Quebec. And the Rendez-vous is the place to take the pulse of that cinema, in all its forms.?
While our independent films continued to garner attention at major festivals around the world, homemade blockbusters took a beating in Quebec in 2012. But even those films get a second chance at the RVCQ. Claude Desrosiers?s corruption epic L?Empire Bo$$?, Luc Dionne?s Mafia saga Omert?, Podz?s controversial wrongful-conviction tale L?affaire Dumont and ?ric Tessier?s kids?-hockey pic Les Pee-Wee 3D: L?hiver qui a chang? ma vie are all on the agenda.
But so is Denis C?t??s experimental park safari documentary Bestiaire, Brigitte Poupart?s stunning dance doc Over My Dead Body (which screened at the MOMA in March), Ivan Grbovic?s unconventional coming-of-age story Rom?o Onze and Federico Hidalgo?s quirky Latin-American immigrant lark L?incr?dule.
?Our approach is really to provide a retrospective of the year in film,? Dugas said, ?a panorama of the highlights, but to also go into the margins of independent cinema.?
Farther off the beaten track, the fest offers an array of documentaries, including Joe Balass?s gay nun tale Joie!; Yannick B. G?linas?s From Montr?al, on the city?s thriving bilingual indie music scene; Ben Addelman?s Kivalina v. Exxon, following an aboriginal town?s fight for survival; Shannon Walsh?s Johannesburg survey Jeppe on a Friday; Yanick L?tourneau?s African rap odyssey Les ?tats-Unis d?Afrique; Paule Baillargeon?s poetic self-portrait Trente tableaux; Paul Arcand?s teen drunk-driving wake-up call D?rapages; Nadine Gomez?s Le Horse Palace, about a holdout Griffintown stable; and Hugo Latulippe?s moving Alph?e des ?toiles, about his young daughter?s struggle to live with a rare disease.
The festival also boasts several notable premi?res, among which are Yan Lanouette Turgeon?s Roche papier ciseaux, which opened the fest on Thursday (see review on this page); Rafa?l Ouellet?s grad-night snapshot Finissant(e)s; Martin Laroche?s Les man?ges humains, in which a young filmmaker explores her troubled past as a child in Africa; and Fran?ois Delisle?s closing film Le m?t?ore (which just screened at the Berlin Film Festival), a sensorial look at the world of a prison inmate serving a 14-year sentence.
While the features draw the crowds, Dugas hopes they will lead people to discover the fest?s extensive range of shorts, packaged into convenient theme-driven programs with such headings as Animation, Coup de poing, Radical, Exp?rimental, Sombres fantaisies and Different View.
Nighttime is party time at the RVCQ, with daily events at the Cin?math?que qu?b?coise meant to merge film, music and schmoozing. Dolan hosts the not-to-be-missed shindig Xavier Anyways, Saturday at 11 p.m., featuring a performance by a secret (but well known) Montreal rock band. Wednesday is 10 ans sous micro_scope!, a bash thrown by the red hot production company (Incendies, Monsieur Lazhar, Inch?Allah). And March 1 is Les ?tats-Unis d?Afrique: Remix, with beats by Poirier and MC Boogat.
The state of the Quebec film industry will be dissected at two 5-?-7 panels at the Cin?math?que qu?b?coise: Qu?est-ce qu?un film qu?b?cois rentable? (What Is a Profitable Quebec Film?) on Monday, and Rayonnement international du cin?ma qu?b?cois (International Appeal of Quebec Cinema) on Wednesday.
?It?s part of a series of activities that put (Quebec) productions in perspective,? Dugas said. ?We?re thinking about our cinema. ? It?s a real festival that resembles no other festival in Montreal, dedicated to our cin?matographie nationale.?
Les Rendez-vous du cin?ma qu?b?cois runs through March 3. For more information, visit rvcq.com.
tdunlevy@montrealgazette.com
Twitter: @tchadunlevy
? Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
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