by Anne Laguë

The 30th Festival international du film sur l’art (FIFA) starts today.

The thirtieth? Already?

Okay, I have to confess that I’m not the most current Montrealer you’ll ever meet, at least as far as the art scene is concerned. And until my telephone interview with the president of FIFA, I was completely ignorant about its concept. A film about art, I thought, that’s got to be like walking into a hall of mirrors, right? Like watching someone on TV watch TV. Right?

Wrong.

René Rozon is the founder and president of the festival, which has livened up the city for thirty years now. He’s raised the event by hand, so to speak, nursing it through its uncertain early years of financial difficulties — always, according to him, the biggest problem of cultural exhibitors — and participation challenges. Now 35,000 people show up to watch films shown in nine cinemas in and around the Quartier des Spectacles.

Mr. Rozon explains that one of the goals of films about art is to increase the knowledge and appreciation of art through a medium that the public already understands. « Film is more accessible to people who don’t necessarily go to museums or art galleries. They’re in direct contact with the artist, but they don’t have to take action. There’s a kind of psychological distancing from the screen. That makes the art and the artist much more accessible. »

And the spectator learns a lot about both of them. « If I don’t get, for example, contemporary art, I can see a film where the artist really explains his or her concept » says Mr. Rozon. « Then I realize that the works have a justification, that there’s thought behind all of it. If I’m in front of a work that I don’t know how to interpret, I can commune with it more easily. »

A schedule of 230 films, from all over the world, will plunge spectators into the world of painting, architecture, circus, dance, comics, and more. Many of the selections will introduce you to important figures in a discipline or demystify particular works. For example, Chercher Noise, by Daniel Robillard and Stéphan Doe, shows the singer and former Cowboy Fringant domlebo during the recording of ten songs by the author, singer and songwriter Dany Placard.

CHERCHER NOISE (bande annonce) par CHERCHER NOISE sur Vimeo.

In Cinema d’horreur: Apocalypse, virus et zombies by Luc Lagier, we take a stunning film class alongside some of the best specialists in the genre.

Among the free events presented by FIFA, there is even Une idée folle — Un hommage au FIFA, a kind of anniversary film about the festival itself by the French director Alain Fleischer, who wanted to pay tribute to an event that has become the most significant of its kind in the world. Rumor has it that founder and president René Rozon will first see the film with the rest of us on Wednesday March 21 at 6 PM, at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

A president who watches, during his own festival of films about art, a tribute film about the festival that has spread Montreal’s reputation throughout the world for 30 years — now we’re really in the hall of mirrors. Right?

Nope. It’s just a richly deserved reward for enhancing the work of thousands of art and film work.

They’re in the home stretch. During the Montreal All-Nighter, final-year students from the UQAM Interactive Media Communications program will unveil the fruits of the hard work they started in September. Using interactive sound and light displays, they’ll encourage visitors to climb the Clocher – UQAM’s landmark bell tower – with TRAME, a larger-than-life tribute to Quebec animated film.

by Felix Larose

If the word « multimedia » reminds you of the boring AV technician in your high-school library, think again. From major ad agencies to international artists like Arcade Fire and Cirque du Soleil, these future professionals will find a job market that is hungry for their talent. So forget about the guy with big glasses and short-sleeve shirts.

Last year's projections (Photo credit: Martine Doyon)

For the first time this year, the almost-graduates can claim a real-life client for their final project. The Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québécois, celebrating its thirtieth anniversary, commissioned these young creators to celebrate Quebec animation in their own way.

Night owls will be able to interact with three scenes, inspired by films like Notes sur un Triangle, Blinkity Blank and Balablok, that will transform the facade of the UQAM bell tower into a movie screen. « People can use a web app on their smartphone or tablet to connect and take control during the interactive portions. They’ll move objects on their touchscreens to control the images projected directly onto the bell tower wall » explains Antoine Goudreault, the project manager and a soon-to-graduate student in the program.

To guide the good ship TRAME into port, the students from the Université du Québec à Montréal have chosen a work process that is quite peculiar and yet quite well suited to this type of project, where managers aren’t always able to understand what it takes to get the job done. It’s a technique that answers to the positively rugbyesque moniker Scrum.

« To give you an image, think of an organization that looks more like a flower than a pyramid. Responsibilities are distributed horizontally, allowing departments to communicate better and take a flexible approach to any bugs that pop up” explains Antoine Goudreault.

If the method is effective as its namesake is brutal, the bell tower display will tackle any lingering doubts. Spectators will have one night – all night – to upgrade to Clocher 2.0.

Montrealers: Are you like me? Have you become perplexed by just how reluctant we are to collectively embrace winter?

by Marie-Pierre Bouchard

It’s true! We often aren’t suited to our own environment, but there are some exceptions. On ski slopes or snowmobile paths, for instance, Quebec people brave the cold with a joie de vivre that’s positively refreshing, merrily giving in to an inner child who wants to do nothing but play outside, good weather or bad. Oh, but in the city? Grumbling, mopey, and wimpy, we spend far too much time indoors. Why bother freezing outside when we’ll only slip on frozen sidewalks and grow bored of a monotonous landscape? So we boil water for tea and try to avoid looking out the window. Grind away at the grey while dreaming of colours. Toast friends in the comfort of the kitchen. Maybe give ourselves a short week somewhere warm. Until then, we lust for springtime wrapped up in blankets and snuggled into a couch somewhere.

It’s a good thing that wintertime cultural events are there to warm the hearts of Montrealers who love festive gatherings. And it’s even better that there’s more and more of these activities every year. Is Montreal quiet in the wintertime? No way! The city still moves to the rhythm of inspiring, energizing events that get people together, and the MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE Festival just might be the best example. Since its beginnings in 2000 the festival has sunk deep roots into the local landscape, becoming one of the must-see events on the Montreal cultural calendar, one of the biggest winter festivals in the world, and a wild experience that draws 900,000 visitors every year. Come see and taste what urban winter can really be when you let yourself get spun around by this whirlpool for the senses: eleven days of music, theatre, fine cuisine, outdoor family activities, illuminated architectural installations, and a packed, eclectic Nuit Blanche program to top it all off!

This 13^th edition of MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE will turn the spotlight on some big names, from here and elsewhere: from the OSM to Diane Tell, from Arthur H to Jorane and the Orchestre I Musici de Montréal. Who else? Coeur de Pirate, My Little Cheap Dictaphone, Eté 67, the Orchestre Métropolitain, the Barr Brothers, Bïa, Stromae, Catherine Major… a total almost fifty artists and groups are on the calendar, including theatre, classical music, dance, jazz, world music and more (check out the complete program for all the details). The closing evening promises to be even more fantastic, when Luc de Larochellière and a dozen other artists pay tribute to none other than Jacques Brel at the Maison Symphonique.

The gastronomical part of MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE is, quite simply, unique in all the world. Bringing gourmands and gourmets together with internationally renowned chefs and winemakers for workshops, culinary tours, and more (all the details are here).

Outdoors in the Quartier des Spectacles, a group of fascinating architectural illuminations will continue until the end of the Festival. If you haven’t already managed to come and see them, here’s your final chance!

There’s something for everyone, and this rich program puts Montreal’s wintertime vitality on full display. It’s a great way to soak up the festive spirit that makes our city so special, and a marvelous opportunity to get out and get moving. I know I’ll certainly be there. Will you?

In 1980, Montreal banned unauthorized advertising posters. In 2012, almost 750 posters will be on display at 15 different sites all year long. The exhibit and the accompanying book celebrate 25 (and a half!) years of the Publicité Sauvage firm as well as the medium itself, a silent witness to the development of urban life.

Par Félix Larose

From Foufounes électriques to the UQAM École de design via Place des Arts and the Monument-National, the advertising posters follow a path that runs all over the city — similar to the path taken by Publicité Sauvage founder Baudoin Wart.

« Starting out, it was a small company doing something illegal. They had to dodge the police, even if all the major cultural organizations used their services » explained Marc H. Choko, who curated the exhibits.

Construction site of the Musée d'art contemporain in 1990

Photo credit | Luc Dussault

As a poster fanatic and professor at the UQAM École de design, Choko didn’t have to think twice before taking on the job of curating this monster exhibition. « At the beginning, the idea was to do one per month. We checked out several locations, and they almost all said yes, so we ended up with quite a nice problem: having to mount 15 exhibits. »

In addition to sketching a quarter-century of Montreal advertising history with picks from a collection of over 40,000 posters, the exhibit will offer 16 original posters for posterity. Eleven established poster artists and six up-and-coming young talents got commissions to the illustrate the fifteen exhibits and the main exhibition poster.

Examples of posters created especially to illustrate some exhibitions

Credits | Charlotte Demers-Labrecque, Mario Mercier and Élizabeth Laferrière

In choosing which works to present, Choko and his team let themselves be influenced by the sites of the exhibit. Thus posters connected to cinema are showing at the Cinémathèque québécoise, circus posters at Tohu, and social activist posters at the Écomusée du Fier Monde. Other sites lent themselves to more diverse displays, like those at Complexe Desjardins or the UQAM École de design.

« We chose good posters, but it’s not all good posters. There are also some bad posters included in the exhibit, which are there because they played a significant role in Montreal history, or mark some historic people or places. »

Now that street art and interactive urban installations are at their peak, posters are undergoing a transformation and becoming an institution. Long confined to construction fences, they now illustrate the shifting magnetic poles of the city’s art scene. Théophile Gautier or Andy Warhol? The choice up to you.

Most exhibits are free. You can check out the exhibition program here.