Pool to open Montreal fest

The upcoming Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois will open with the latest feature from award-winning director Léa Pool and wrap with Journal d’un coopérant, a web-based film by Robert Morin. Adapted from the novel Une belle mort by Quebec novelist and journalist Gil Courtemanche (A Sunday by the Pool in Kigali), Pool’s latest, La dernière fugue, tells the story of a family coming together over the Christmas season and dealing with a patriarch suffering from Parkinson’s Disease.

Shot in Burundi last summer, Morin’s Journal d’un coopérant is based on a series of video capsules already posted on the web (www.journalduncooperant.com) which follow an electrician who works for Radio Monde. Morin (Requiem pour un beau sans coeur, Papa à la chasse aux lagopèdes) has said he may change the course of the story according to viewers’ comments. He will screen the final version of the film at the RVCQ.

This year’s festival is dedicated to filmmaker Gilles Carle, who died late last year. The festival has asked the public and filmmakers to make three-minute films in honor of Carle. A selection will be shown at a special screening and on the festival’s website. The festival has also created the Prix Gilles-Carle, which will be given to an emerging director for their first or second feature.

The RVCQ runs Feb. 17-26 in Montreal.