(Photo : Philippe Montpetit. Image provided by the NFB)
May 17, 2018 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
The winners of the 10th Tremplin competition, organized by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in collaboration with Radio-Canada, are Nathalie Hébert from Scoudouc (New Brunswick) and Josiane Blanc from Toronto (Ontario). Putting women filmmakers front and centre, this year’s winners were selected from among nine finalists in the cross-Canada contest, which is open to emerging francophone filmmakers from minority communities. The winning films will be broadcast on ICI RADIO-CANADA TÉLÉ, which has partnered with Tremplin since 2007.
Hébert’s film will be produced by Christine Aubé at the Moncton-based Canadian Francophonie Studio – Acadie. Entitled Bateau, boulot, dodo, it’s about a man who is found by happiness, rather than the other way around. As for Blanc’s film, entitled La révolution courbes, it tackles the persistent taboos around body diversity and will be produced by Denis McCready at the Canadian Francophonie Studio in Toronto. Looking both inward and outward, each short documentary is stamped with its filmmaker’s personal vision.
Tremplin offers winners the chance to make their first or second professional short documentary (20 minutes max) under professional conditions and to create a French-language work in their home region. Besides the training workshops they attended as finalists, winners benefit from the NFB’s expertise through every stage of production. Next spring, they’ll be mentored as they write their scripts and will start shooting with a professional crew come summer. Post-production and final touches are scheduled for fall/winter 2018–2019.
“This year’s Tremplin competition has once again brought some stunning new talent to light. Hébert’s project takes a novel and personal approach to the perception of happiness. Working with Radio-Canada means the works reach a larger audience, which is a key component of the NFB’s mandate as public producer.” – Christine Aubé, Interim Producer, Canadian Francophonie Studio – Acadie, NFB
“We were drawn to Josiane Blanc’s project because it tackles a very widespread form of discrimination head-on. Given the important role of the documentary in shaping visual culture, this project has the potential to change our ways of seeing.” – Denis McCready, Interim Producer, Canadian Francophonie Studio, NFB
“Radio-Canada is very proud to foster new talent and support these two winners as they make their films. Body diversity and the return to simple values are two hot topics at present, and we are very keen to explore them through the eyes of these two filmmakers.” – Marie-Claude Dupont, Managing Director, Programming and Multiplatform Strategy, Radio-Canada Regional Services
Winning projects and winners’ bios
Bateau, boulot, dodo by Nathalie Hébert
Bateau, boulot, dodo takes a head-on look at life in today’s hectic world. After weathering a turbulent phase of her life, Hébert attempts to capture the concept of happiness in all its simplicity. Her meeting with Lucien Comeau, a philosopher on the margins, was enlightening. Comeau has an instinctive grasp of the concept of wellbeing and a knack for finding happiness in everyday life. Everyone is searching for “the ultimate happiness”—and Comeau has found it by not looking for anything at all.
Nathalie Hébert is an artist at heart. Passionate and engaged, she recently left behind a 14-year career in optometry to pursue her dream of working with youth, and is currently an educational assistant with the Francophone Sud School District in New Brunswick. She embraces the simple life and enjoys simple things. Her passion for filmmaking is relatively new, and she is keen to train her lens on people she finds inspiring.
La révolution courbes by Josiane Blanc
La révolution courbes sets out to break down the persistent taboos around body diversity by introducing us to women with varying degrees of self-acceptance. All too aware of the impact a narrow definition of “beauty” has had on her and every woman around her, Blanc asks how we can possibly love and appreciate our bodies when we’ve been so thoroughly conditioned to see ourselves as less-than.
Josiane Blanc is a passionate storyteller and firm believer in the use of media as a means of change. Her versatility has enabled her to work in a wide range of positions in Canada, Europe, South America and Africa, where she took the opportunity to film the lives of the people she met. In 2016, she developed and directed Exceptional Youth, a series of short documentaries made for TFO. Selected for the Black Women Film! Canada’s Leadership program for emerging filmmakers in 2017 and the Toronto Doc Institute’s Breakthrough program, Josiane is currently developing several new documentary projects aimed at giving a voice to certain underrepresented groups.
Jury members
Marie-Claude Dupont, Managing Director, Programming and Multiplatform Strategy, Radio-Canada Regional Services
Pierre Ouellette, Director, French services– Ontario regions – Radio-Canada
Colette Francoeur, Regional Director, Radio-Canada – Acadie
Julien Cadieux, filmmaker
Denis McCready, Interim Producer, Canadian Francophonie Studio, NFB
Christine Aubé, Interim Producer, Canadian Francophonie Studio – Acadie, NFB
Alexandrine Torres de Figueiredo, Line Producer, Canadian Francophonie Studio, NFB
Films from Tremplin
Since the competition began in 2006, 344 projects have been submitted, 94 have been selected, and 27 films have been made (14 in Acadie and 13 in Ontario, the West and Northern Canada). Most Tremplin films can be viewed free of charge online at NFB.ca: https://www.nfb.ca/playlist/tremplin-program-winners/
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Related Products
Photos and bios of the winners are available here (in French).
Watch presentation videos by Josiane Blanc and Nathalie Hébert (in French).
Associated Links
Radio-Canada