{"id":469,"date":"2009-02-24T01:26:16","date_gmt":"2009-02-24T05:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/?p=469"},"modified":"2010-02-09T13:56:19","modified_gmt":"2010-02-09T17:56:19","slug":"the-philosopher-filmmaker-at-rideau-hall-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/2009\/02\/24\/the-philosopher-filmmaker-at-rideau-hall-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"The philosopher-filmmaker at Rideau Hall – part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jean-Daniel<\/a>
\n Jean-Daniel Lafond<\/em><\/p>\n

The other day, as U.S. President Obama touched down in Ottawa, I asked my students at l’INIS, the Quebec Film school, a question. ‘Which documentary filmmaker will be meeting with Obama today?’ Puzzled looks, no answers. They asked for a lead. ‘OK, I said, he is also a French citizen.’ ‘Oh, of course,’ said Nathalie who used to work at the NFB. ‘I know who it is, but he’s not there because he’s a filmmaker.’<\/p>\n

I recently had a chance to meet with and interview Jean-Daniel Lafond<\/strong><\/a>, the husband of Governor General Micha\u00eblle Jean<\/strong><\/a>, during a visit to Montreal and on the occasion of a retrospective of his works, <\/strong>curated by Tom McSorley<\/strong> at the Canadian Film Institute<\/strong><\/a> in Ottawa and running until March 8th. The vast conceptual range of the 15 films he has directed since 1986 defy obvious notions of a continuous oeuvre.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I asked Jean-Daniel two questions, which, given his habitual eloquence, spun into a 30-minute answer, weaving in and through a wide range of topics and philosophical musings about his life\u2019s work. Given how much there is to report from our discussion, I\u2019ll share the first answer with you this week and the second next week.
\n[Video interview clip further down.]<\/p>\n

\"Folle_de_dieu\"<\/a>
\nMarie Tifo playing the role of Marie de l’Incarnation, in the film ‘Folle de Dieu’ (‘The Madwoman of God’)
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

First question: What impulses and\/or issues tie together what initially appears to be a very disparate range of works?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Jean-Daniel begins enigmatically by saying \u201cNous faisons ce que nous faisons en suivant le chemin qui nous \u00e9chappe…\u201d by which he means that the documentary impulse for him is always a movement toward the unknown, and stems from a desire to understand. He cites Spinoza at the start of his 2006 film, The Fugitive<\/em>, \u201cNot laughter, not tears, understanding\u201d, an adage which he says is perhaps most fundamental to his work.<\/p>\n

Jean-Daniel says that this retrospective, along with a \u201cperspectives\u201d tribute at La Rochelle documentary festival last year, have enabled him to articulate more clearly the connecting threads. He sees his most recent film, Folle de Dieu<\/em> (The Madwoman of God<\/em>)<\/strong><\/a>, about the ideas and writings of an 18th mystic – Marie de l\u2019Incarnation – who came to Nouvelle France to found a country, as utterly coherent with his first film, Les Traces du r\u00eave<\/em> <\/em>(Dream Tracks<\/em>)<\/strong><\/a>, a portrait of seminal documentarist Pierre Perrault<\/strong><\/a> and of his films in relation to the creation of a country. Both interrogate the act of writing\/filmmaking in the context of ideas of place, Otherness, dreams and utopias.<\/p>\n

What he calls his fight for \u201cthe humanization of humanity\u201d precedes his trajectory as a filmmaker. His first career was as a philosopher, a political thinker and defender of culture against the \u201cabsolute evil\u201d of ignorance. He was transformed both by his exile and by his encounter with cinema, which he says is humbling, because it always begins from a place of ignorance. \u201cAs a philosopher, I always transmitted what I knew. As a filmmaker, I transmit my experience of the unknown, of the unpredictable, what is beyond me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lafond\u2019s films defy categories and cannot easily be summarized, as they offer an almost seamless extension of his philosophical journey, exploring and confronting the major ideas of the past half-century – exile, n\u00e9gritude, religion, the Other, barbarism.<\/p>\n

Next week, the second question: How has Jean-Daniel adapted to his newest role as \u201cHis Excellency\u201d and a very active partner to Canada\u2019s Governor General, Micha\u00eblle Jean?<\/p>\n

Thanks to Jocelyne Clarke<\/strong> and Jorge Bustos-Estefan<\/a><\/strong> for help with this blog.<\/p>\n

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Jean-Daniel Lafond The other day, as U.S. President Obama touched down in Ottawa, I asked my students at l’INIS, the Quebec Film school, a question. ‘Which documentary filmmaker will be meeting with Obama today?’ Puzzled looks, no answers. They asked for a lead. ‘OK, I said, he is also a French citizen.’ ‘Oh, of course,’ … Continue reading The philosopher-filmmaker at Rideau Hall – part 1<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,11,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-documentary-debates","category-english","category-festivals","category-francais"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1015,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions\/1015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}