Cameras are rolling in Japan for Laurence Lévesque’s documentary feature film Mama no himitsu with Montreal as its last stop for production.

Principal filming takes place in Japan from July 22 until Aug. 20, with the crew landing in Montreal on Sept. 3 to shoot for approximately five days, according to a spokesperson for the film.

Mama no himitsu is Lévesque’s feature directorial debut and is produced by Rosalie Chicoine Perreault and Catherine Boily of Montreal’s Metafilms. Quebec-based film cooperative Spira has acquired Canadian rights and will distribute the film in 2024.

Directed and written by Lévesque with cinematography by Sébastien Blais, the documentary follows an elderly Canadian woman of Japanese descent who returns to her motherland to sell her childhood home.

Mama no himitsu is produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada, Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC), the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, SODEC’s Crédit d’impôt cinéma et télévision, and the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit.

Lévesque previously directed the 2017 narrative short film, Drap contour, as well as the documentary short Port d’attache in 2019. The latter short won Best National Short or Medium-Length Film at the Montreal doc festival RIDM.

Photo by Sébastien Blais