Quebec-based filmmaker Ariane Louis-Seize is getting back in the director’s chair for her feature-length debut with Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant. 

Produced by Jeanne-Marie Poulain and Line Sander Egede of Montreal’s art et essai, the film is currently being filmed in Montreal until Dec. 6. Irène Bessone and Anaëlle Béglet serve as executive producers of the film. It is written by Louis-Seize and Christine Doyon.

The fantasy comedy is produced with financial participation from SODEC, Telefilm Canada, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the FNC Forum grant offered by Netflix. It is set to be distributed by Montreal’s H264 Studios and released in 2023.

It follows a “humanist vampire” who meets and falls in love with a chronically depressed person. The film stars Sara Montpetit, Félix-Antoine Bénard, Steve Laplante, Sophie Cadieux, Noémie O’Farrell, Marie Brassard, Marc Beaupré, Patrick Hivon, Micheline Bernard, Ariane Castellanos, Madeleine Peloquin, Gabriel-Antoine Roy, Emma Olivier, Arnaud Vachon, and Isabella Villalba.

The film marks the director’s fourth collaboration with art et essai, after her short films Wild Skin (La peau sauvage), which travelled to more than 50 festivals around the world and won numerous awards; Little Waves (Les petites vagues), which had its world premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and its international premiere at the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival; and The Depths (Les profondeurs), which also had its world premiere at TIFF in 2019.

She also directed the 2020 short film Shooting Star (Comme une comète), produced by Montreal’s Colonelle Films, which won the $1,000 Canadian ShortWork Award at the Whistler Film Festival.

Image courtesy of art et essai