FIFA 2018: L'Homme de l'isle

Fragment of Riopelle's Tribute to Rosa Luxemburg

L'HOMME DE L'ISLE

Documentary

Official Competition Art FIFA 2018

Director: BRUNO BOULIANNE

72 minutes | Québec, Canada | 2017

RELEASE date in Quebec cinemas - March 23, 2018.

The film elaborates how the hunting trips of the renown Quebec painter Jean-Paul Riopelle with Gilles Gagné, a geese hunting guide on Isle aux Oies, contributed to the artist's imagery, and how the brutal act of shooting, the death of geese and their blood found an expression in the Reopelle's monumental work Tribute to Rosa Luxemburg, a legacy piece, which he began in his studio on Île-aux-Oies in November 1992 after learning of the death in Paris of his former close companion, the American painter Joan Mitchel. The work was displayed in full at the MNBAQ (Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec - Quebec Museum of Fine Art) exhibition between January 29, 2014 - January 3, 2016.

Gilles Gagné in front of Riopelle's Tribute to Rosa Luxemburg

With this film, Bruni Boulianne brings into focus St Laurence River, especially its Isle aux Oises and Isle aux Grues which are actually two ends if the same landmass - the same long and narrow island in the middle of the river. He presents a skilled hunter Gille Gagné, a living incarnation of the place where he lives and practices his profession of the hunting guide in close connection with the elements, and of the times past, preserving the island's history and memory.

For thirty years, Gilles Gagné had guided the painter Jean-Paul Riopelle (1923 – 2002) to the most spectacular goose hunts. More than an accomplice of hunting, he became an ally to some of Riopelle's artistic creations, a witness of the passing time. Now, in the film, he hunts on similar trails with another French Canadian visual artist Marc Séguin.

Marc Séguin and Gilles Gagné (right) 

In addition to artistic allusions and art connections, the film presents Quebec regional nature and also an ethnographic study of the life on the island, featuring even a local Pierrot costume festival. The island's  inhabitants French also differs from the standard or Montreal French, not only in pronunciation but also in some vocabulary. For the Anglophone viewers, even those who speak French, future English subtitles would be helpful.

The photography aspect of the film is quite stunning. The orchestration of the nature camera shots, sounds, and the dance-like movement of the birds and branches form a visual and auditory symphony that is hypnotic and induces an almost meditative state.

Click on images to enlarge them.

The film might be of great interest to hunters and could be promoted in hunting clubs across the continent. On the other hand, it might create too great an interest, many wanting to coming to hunt on the island where the geese population is drastically diminishing and is no longer plentiful even for the local hunters.

CREATIVE TEAM

Les Films du 3 mars

With participation of GILLES GAGNÉ, MARC SÉGUIN, GINA VÉZINA

Editing: VINCENT GUIGNARD

Photography: ALEX MARGINEANU, FRANÇOIS VINCELETTE

Sound: STÉPHANE BARSALOU, MÉLANIE GAUTHIER

Sound Director MARTIN ALLARD, SIMON GERVAIS

Audio mixing: SERGE BOIVIN

Director, Script and Producer BRUNO BOULIANNE

FILM TRAILER on Vimeo

https://vimeo.com/252349740

For more information and FIFA film festival and scheduling, visit the Art FIFA website.