15H:30, October 17, it is today that the DVD set of my films is going to be launched. Coktail at 17H:00 and performance with Robert Marcel Lepage and René Lussier at 20H:00.
The beginning of the day was difficult. I arrived at La Société des arts technologiques at 10H:30 thinking that we were going to have all afternoon to quietly do a complete rehearsal of the piece and I found out that something else had been booked in the afternoon and that we were going to free the space at 13H:00. And Robert was to arrive just at 13H:00. so this meant no complete sound check before tonight after 18H:00 and no rehearsal.
I was quite unhappy of all that. It turned out that several people had their hand on the booking of the spaces at SAT and that it lacked coordination. Anyway there was noting to be done to have rehearsal time, we were not going to try to throw out the people who were already there for their 14H:00 performance. And anyway I have always been reluctant for rehearsals on the day of performances so maybe it is better that we keep our energy for tonight. I am actually more prepared than I usually am. I have been rehearsing twice a day at home for the last few days. But last night, I had some new ideas that I wanted to test. I in term of coordination (I am recording animation in three different buffers – first time I do thast – and it is easy to make mistakes and record in the wrong buffer), I felt I still had progress to make. But I have seen worst situations. So I am trying to feel positive about the whole thing.
Herqueville was shown twice earlier in the festival, last Saturday evening and Monday afternoon. Saturday, it was a full house and Monday the theater was more than half full. It became quite obvious this year that there is a growing interest amongst young people for short films in general and experimental films in particular. Which is very encouraging. Herqueville was well received as far as I can judge. My young friend Karl Lemieux told me the rumor was that it was my best film. Hard for me to judge about that but I am quite convince that this film is going to be a turning point in my work.
I have been so submerged with the recent death of my stepmother and by the endless renovation of the kitchen at home, that I don’t quite realize that this is an important day for me. When I was awarded the Quebec Government Cinema Prize three years ago, I did set a certain number of objectives for the coming years : 1- get my personnal web site on line, 2- get a selection of articles published as a book, 3- have a DVD set of my films published by the NFB, 4- start producing my films in HD format (I actually used a big chunk of the money that came with the prize to renew my equipment to be able to start working in HD). Today, I affirm that, although it took longer than I expected, all of those four objectives have been attained. The book was published a year ago (Corps, Langage, Technologie, édition Les 400 coups), Herqueville which was completed a month ago, is my first film in HD format, the DVD set is now available in stores and in a way today can also be considered as the official launch of my site (by the fact that it is refered at in the booklet that accompanies the DVD set. So I have good reasons to be happy today, even if the day did not start in the best possible way.