Robert Lepage’s Image Mills: a fantastic experience

Image Mills in Quebec City

The other day my friend Stefan Nitoslawski and I undertook a pilgrimage to Quebec City to see theatre director – and sometimes filmmaker – Robert Lepage’s Image Mills. It is part of the celebrations of the 400th anniversary of Quebec City. Lepage comes from there, and his company Ex Machina is based there. The Image Mills tells the history of the city in a dense 40-minute audiovisual montage projected onto the abandoned grain silos of the port. The silos provide for a strong vertical theme, but then the considerable number of silos make up a projection ‘screen’ which must be a couple of hundred meters long, allowing for striking horizontal themes. The montage is beautifully done and full of surprises. I asked Sefan, who is an excellent DOP ( among the many documentaries he has shot are several of Brian McKenna’s series on wars) what impressed him the most about Image Mills. His answer:

Stefan Nitoslawski

Stefan : ‘The first thing that hits you is the scale of the projection. It is fantastic; so wide and panoramic that you feel it is a long series of unfolding post-cards telling a story. Then, Lepage cleverly integrates the architecture of the silos into the narration. The towering cylinders could be a unified screen or rows of cigarettes, candles, or people. Finally, I loved the many playful ideas for animation that tied together the history of Quebec.’

As a DOP, anything more specific ?

‘I didn’t really look at this projection with DP eyes. I looked at it more through my experience with animation. What I found inspiring was the simplicity of the ideas that were juxtaposed in very imaginative ways. So graphic, almost psychedelic patterns become waves as a ship slowly emerges from the bottom of the screen. Described in a sentence it seems banal but the experience is multilayered and powerful.’

We also went to see an exhibition called Passengers, which tells you about experiences of immigration and settlement in Quebec City, beautifully shot in black and white.

Stefan : ‘Passengers was fun because you get to look at immigration as a modern-day airplane traveller. At the ‘gate’ you are given a suitcase that you register and that, as you enter subsequent rooms, triggers, video interviews of different peoples experience of their arrival or their origins in Quebec. I travel a lot and it became a very accessible way of getting a sense for the trepidation of new immigrants or the ties to old roots.’

And anything more specific that impressed you?

‘I was struck by how the installation delivered the experience without dwelling on facts and explanations. There were only a few statistic provided and practically no historical explanations. What I liked about this balance is that it posed more questions than it gave answers. As a result, i left with a feeling of wanting to go and find out more about Quebec City on the one hand, and my own origins on the other.’

These two experiences together, do they say anything about where we’re at in terms of the presentation of documentary images ?

‘Both shows further expand the documentary pallet. The technology has become so sophisticated and seamless that there is a freedom in these productions making them light yet completely engaging. It also underscores the fact that our experience of the documentary is going beyond television and cinema in both its form and format. Multiple or single projections, huge or tiny, long or short with various techniques can be used to convey a documentary experience. It struck me to what extent this has become a mainstream language but also to the fact that it is a language susceptible to glitches: as we entered the last room of Passengers, our suitcases would not trigger the video screens. A reoccurring bug that the exhibits technicians are having a hard time killing.’