Filmmakers

Directors' Statement; Sophie Deraspe:

Two truths, one lie :

Games aside, what is left of Victor Pellerin when all is said and done ? For me, a feeling that reality and fiction are inextricably linked, that they simultaneously co-exist and deny one another in the media, the economy, politics, culture and in the images we project of our own selves, caught between the desire to know and understand and the desire to invent and create. Like all films, Missing Victor Pellerin is a documentary.

Sophie Deraspe
Biography

Sophie Deraspe, born in Québec, Canada, first studied art in Austria, focusing primarily on photography. Upon her return to Canada, she continued her studies at Ottawa University and l'Université de Montréal, where she completed her BA in Cinema. Having always been interested in the arts in general, it was in shouldering a film camera for the first time that she found her own artistic voice.

In tandem with her work in television, where she alternated between the role of director and director of photography, Deraspe shot her own documentary, Moi, la mer, elle est belle, a portrait of a people living in isolation. The film was shown in Canada and Europe, and through it, Deraspe discovered her love of the documentary approach. Deraspe sees reality as a well of inspiration, as deep and rich as the world of fiction. She also shot two short films in collaboration with dancer/ choreographer Sheila Ribeiro. In a hybrid genre, Flea market (we are used and cheap) et Diet sub-title were mainly shown in dance festivals in South America and Europe, although the former was screened at the International Festival of Films on Art in Montréal. To this Deraspe added another short film, Saute la coche, which received the Special Jury Prize in Athens.

With Missing Victor Pellerin, a project Deraspe has been working on for almost seven years and which has combined all her former experience, she offers us her first feature length film.

Serge Noël
Line Producer

Serge Noël has produced both his own and other directors' films. Long since active in the arena of independent cinema, he has been a member of AAMI, Films de l'Autre, SpiraFilm, and also the Canada Counsel of the Arts as a media arts consultant. He has also participated in the drafting and editing of a beginners' guide to cinema production co-published by SODEC and INIS. He produced Contact, a TV series about creation and the Arts that was shown in 2006 on Télé-Québec.

As a director of fiction, Serge Noël has to his credit Enzyme mélancolie, R, and Le Marxiste et les Autres. In these short films, he constructs a universe where the act of speech has the power to alter reality. Serge Noël also directed an urban documentary entitled Voisins mur à mur (1997), which takes the form of a series of short fictional works, each told from the point of view of a different individuals regarding their attitudes towards their neighbors. Based on this idea, he directed a series of ‘tele-capsules' for TQS.

Since 2003, with the support of Telefilm Canada, Serge Noël has been working on his first feature-length film script entitled Modeste ou l'entendement, a film for which, thanks to the support of CAC, he is also developing original techniques for the treatment of black and white 35mm film. He has, for this purpose, imported a mysterious developing machine from California, which he maintains he knows how to use… and which he would be happy to put at the service of any other Montreal filmmakers.

Douglas Bensadoun
Executive Producer

Following course work at La Sorbonne (I, V) and L'Institut des Études Politiques, Douglas graduated cum laude with a BA in Political Science from Tufts University. After three years of production work in Los Angeles, he began his career as a filmmaker working in the corporate, music, television, and film industries. Douglas has produced and directed several award-winning films that have been broadcasted on over 25 stations and traveled around the globe to over 100 film festivals. He now lives in Little Italy, Montreal.

Denis Langlois
Co-writer of the original story

A native of Rouyn-Noranda, Denis Langlois is a man of many trades. Following his travels, Langlois settled in Montreal and earned a living as a baker and book salesman while touching briefly upon literature and film at the University of Montréal. Having been touched by Perreault and Rouch, Langlois collaborated with Sophie Deraspe on what would come to be known as Missing Victor Pellerin, for which he wrote the first draft. He then established himself in Montreal, frequenting cafes with artists who gladly lent themselves to him and formed a collective in the name of Essarte. Langlois now resides in an old stone house with his girlfriend in l'Île d'Orléans. He manages his time between writing, building a house, and Agronomic Science.

Missing Victor Pellerin was made thanks to the indispensable collaboration of the following artists and individuals who permitted the representation of their works and personal photographs :

The illustrated books of Nathalie Bujold and her work entitled Vingt-sept secondes (2003) © Nathalie Bujold / SODART (Montreal) 2005

The art book of Zoran Music Nous ne sommes pas les derniers is presented with the gracious permission of the Jan Krugier Gallery, Ditesheim & Cie, Geneva.