April 22, 2021 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) will be at the 39th annual Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma (RVQC) with 14 productions and co-productions, including the Quebec premiere of Renée Blanchar’s feature-length documentary Le silence (The Silence). The film will also be competing in the category of best French-Canadian film, along with Monique LeBlanc’s feature-length Plus haut que les flammes (Higher Than Flames Will Go).
The NFB works selected to screen at the RVQC—five feature-length documentaries, one feature-length auteur essay film, seven short documentaries, and one animated short—take highly personal cinematic approaches to their subjects, with a focus on themes of memory and history. Whether depicting how the past sheds light on the present or how upheaval caused by the pandemic is challenging social relationships, these films offer perspectives on the complexity of today’s world. This annual retrospective of Quebec cinema is an opportunity to view or revisit films that have screened, and often won awards, at the most important national and international festivals over the past year. This year’s RVQC will be held from April 28 to May 8, 2021, online throughout Canada and in theatres in Montreal.
Quick Facts
For more details, see the NFB at the RVQC press kit.
Competition – Best French-Canadian film
- Le silence (The Silence) by Renée Blanchar (Ça Tourne Productions/NFB) – QUEBEC PREMIERE
- The documentary sensitively tackles a difficult topic: the sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholic priests against young boys in francophone New Brunswick. The subject couldn’t be more relevant, as it joins the long list of pedophilia scandals tarnishing the Catholic Church in Canada, the United States, and elsewhere in the world.
- The film won the Vague Léonard-Forest prize for best Acadian feature film at the 2020 Festival international du cinéma francophone en Acadie (FICFA).
- Plus haut que les flammes (Higher Than Flames Will Go) by Monique LeBlanc (NFB)
- An adaptation of Louise Dupré’s acclaimed book of poetry, the film is a moving meditation on the vital importance of taking care of our children, a task that remains essential to humanity’s salvation.
- This auteur essay film was screened at various Canadian festivals, including the International Festival of Films on Art and FICFA.
Feature-length documentaries
These four films—including the recent hit Les Rose (The Rose Family) by Félix Rose, which has been viewed more than 85,000 times on NFB.ca/ONF.ca and had an outstanding theatrical release—have been and continue to be screened in Quebec, Canada and elsewhere, at festivals, in theatres, in communities and online.
Short documentaries
These seven films capture their creators’ perspectives on the pandemic’s multifaceted impacts in Quebec. Made in the Beyond the Curve documentary lab, they’re part of The Curve: Social Distancing Stories That Bring Us Together, an NFB collection that tackles the COVID-19 crisis.
- Avant la nuit (As Night Descends) by Nadine Gomez
- Chroniques du bout de mon rang (Road’s End Chronicle) by Nicolas Paquet
- Y’a des fois où j’aimerais me trouver sur une île déserte (Sometimes I Wish I Was on a Desert Island) by Eli Jean Tahchi
- L’impossible été de Jules (Jules’ Impossible Summer) by Marie-Julie Dallaire
- La veille (The Vigil) by Christine Chevarie-Lessard
- “Contact ”: requiem pour un mot (“Contact” – Requiem for a Word) by Olivier D. Asselin
- Sòl by Valérie Bah and Tatiana Zinga Botao
Animated short
This film has been acclaimed at the most prestigious festivals in Canada and abroad.
- Moi, Barnabé (I, Barnabé) by Jean-François Lévesque (NFB)
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Associated Links
Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma
Ça Tourne Productions
Babel Films
Loaded Pictures
EyeSteelFilm
French version here | Version française.