“In
few words, it’s the story of a man who tries to castrate himself
with pills,” says François Blouin of his first, as-yet-untitled,
feature film. Somehow this doesn’t sound surprising, coming from
the 25-year-old Joliette-born filmmaker who wears many hats. Since graduating
in film from Université de Montréal two years ago, Blouin’s
work has brought him all over the world for different cinematic adventures.
In Rome he was an assistant to director Michel Poulette on the TV series
Family: The Life and Times of Joseph Bonnano starring Martin Landau
and Edward James Olmos; in French Polynesia and New York City he was
DOP for a documentary on beautiful hotels; and in Mexico he directed
a music video for Les Respectables.
Blouin has churned out a dozen award-winning music videos for such québécois
musical acts as alterna-cellist Jorane, urban hicks Les Cowboys Fringants
and media darling Daniel Boucher (he won the Félix for best music
video of 2001 at the l’ADISQ awards for Boucher’s song “La
désise”). But his heart belongs to less commercial endeavours:
his own no-budget digital video experiments.
“I just get together with some friends in a dimly lit room,”
he explains of these bizarre nocturnal ventures. “We try to construct
something out of nothing—with just a camera, some actors and a
mood.” Which brings us back to his debut feature, which already
has a distributor, Fun Films. The digital video tale of sexual confusion
was shot in an unheard-of four days last winter.
“My friend Yann Lauzon came to me with a script and we decided
to just shoot it and not think too much about finding any money to do
it—we just did it.” So they rallied their friends in the film
and theatre communities and the rest, I’m told, may make movie
history. Keep an eye out for this hormonal allegory in more independent-minded
cinemas this spring. :
“In
few words, it’s the story of a man who tries to castrate himself
with pills,” says François Blouin of his first, as-yet-untitled,
feature film. Somehow this doesn’t sound surprising, coming from
the 25-year-old Joliette-born filmmaker who wears many hats. Since graduating
in film from Université de Montréal two years ago, Blouin’s
work has brought him all over the world for different cinematic adventures.
In Rome he was an assistant to director Michel Poulette on the TV series
Family: The Life and Times of Joseph Bonnano starring Martin Landau
and Edward James Olmos; in French Polynesia and New York City he was
DOP for a documentary on beautiful hotels; and in Mexico he directed
a music video for Les Respectables.