Awarded several times, nonagenarian filmmaker Fernand Dansereau will receive a new medal this Saturday night at the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards (PGGAS) gala.
Happy and honored, Fernand Dansereau was happy to learn he was one of seven PGGAS winners this year, but most of all he was surprised.
When we work, we are not aware that we are doing work. Later, when the awards come, we will say to ourselves: “My God!”he said, by telephone, from his home in Saint-Bruno.
He sees this award as a celebration of his way of making film and television. I have talked a lot about the relationship with each other and how to take care of it in my work.says one to have produced approximately twenty short and feature films, including sweet confessionwith Marcel Sabourin, in 1982, and twilightwith Monique Mercure and Suzanne Clément, in 2007.
To him we also owe the scripts of the teleserye The park of the brave at Sons of Caleb.
Arrived at the cinema by accident
After starting his professional life as a journalist, he entered the world of cinema unwillingly, as it was Pierre Juneau, who later served as minister and president of Société Radio-Canada, who recruited to the National Film Board (NFB) in 1955. At that time, Fernand Dansereau had just been fired Have for refusing to cross a picket line during a typesetters strike.
” When I go back to my career in film and TV, I think I was so lucky, incredible! I didn’t work, I was always having fun, researching questions that interested me. “
In the 2010s, Fernand Dansereau introduced himself to a documentary trilogy in old age, in which he looked at this question from the angle of laughter, eroticism and hope.
A documentary about joy in works
From now on, he wanted to make a documentary with joy, but his project went through three consecutive rejections.
For some time, I struggled with selling my salad, despite the success of my latest films, he was saddened. I feel like ageism is at play, although I’m not the only one having a hard time getting funding.
If he was able to make his film with joy, this work would build him up philosophical testament.
” My creative work has given me a lot of joy in my life. I believe you can develop skills that promote joy and I want to share this with everyone in the audience. “
The one who has long wanted to be successful as a director has changed his goals. My joy as a filmmaker comes when viewers tell me: “I feel good in film” or “I learned things”he pointed out.
Happiness is in creation
Today, creation, which he defines as bringing being where nothing is, continues to contribute to his happiness. Every morning, I think about what I will create for that day, he confesses. I’m not just saying that artistically. Cooking or making a nice phone call to someone you haven’t talked to in a long time are creative works.
Another creative work that gives him joy: naive painting. I do it for fun, and it makes me happy, he says. I don’t have to think about success anymore, because I’m too old to live as an artist.
In 2019, Fernand Dansereau saw his paintings displayed for the first time, in Saint-Bruno. I even sold paintingshe said.
Full of hope
During his career, the director and screenwriter discussed the Aboriginal question, especially in the series Shehawehwith Marina Orsini, and in the documentary The other side of the moon. He is pleased to see that Quebec has awakened to these issues today. It must have been done a long time ago.
He sees this as another reason to believe in the future, even though optimism is far from reigning in our society today. We are rightly concerned about the war in Ukraine, the threat of Russia or the next forest fires, but we should also see everything invented, doing good and maintaining as happy relationships of people.
Every day, millions of people try to do good things and help others, and since Homo sapiens, humanity has overcome a thousand dangers, he continues. So I remain hopeful for the future!
Source: Radio-Canada
