Quebec Cinema in the 21st Century - (Contemporary French and Francophone Cultures) by Michael Gott & Thibaut Schilt (Hardcover)

About the Book

This collection of ten chapters and three interviews focuses on the past two decades of Quebec cinema and takes an in-depth look at a Montreal-based filmmaking industry whose increasingly diverse productions continue to resist the hegemony of Hollywood and to exist as a visible and successful hub of French-language -- and ever more multilingual -- cinema in North America.

Book Synopsis

This collection of ten chapters and three original interviews with Québécois filmmakers focuses on the past two decades of Quebec cinema and takes an in-depth look at a (primarily) Montreal-based filmmaking industry whose increasingly diverse productions continue to resist the hegemony of Hollywood and to exist as a visible and successful hub of French-language - and ever more multilingual - cinema in North America. This volume picks up where Bill Marshall's 2001 Quebec National Cinema ends to investigate the inherently global nature of Quebec's film industry and cinematic output since the beginning of the new millennium. Through their analyses of contemporary films (Une colonie, Avant les rues, Bon cop, bad cop, Les Affamés, Tom à la ferme, Uvanga, among others), directors (including Xavier Dolan, Denis Côté, Sophie Desrape, Chloé Robichaud, Jean-Marc Vallée, and Monia Chokri) and genres (such as the buddy comedy and the zombie film), our authors examine the growing tension between Quebec cinema as a "national cinema" and as an art form that reflects the transnationalism of today's world, a new form of fluidity of individual experiences, and an increasing on-screen presence of Indigenous subjects, both within and outside the borders of the province. The book concludes with specially conducted interviews with filmmakers Denis Chouinard, Bachir Bensadekk, and Marie-Hélène Cousineau, who provide their views and insights on contemporary Quebec filmmaking.

Review Quotes

'Gott and Schilt have seized the moment to produce an important volume on the diversity and transnationalism of the new century's productions, bringing together ten scholarly perspectives along with three interviews with directors whose work embodies the theme.' Miléna Santoro, Nouvelles Vues

'This exciting and important anthology includes a range of leading scholars who engage in distinct and varied ways with the central premise that since the turn of the millennium Quebec film has changed irreducibly and dramatically as it globalizes and incorporates new generations of directors with diverse perspectives, affiliations and styles of storytelling.'

Brenda Longfellow

About the Author

Michael Gott is Professor of French and Film & Media Studies at the University of Cincinnati.

Thibaut Schilt is Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the College of the Holy Cross.