2017 FESTIVAL UPDATE #9: VISITING FILMMAKER SIMON LAVOIE

Only 6 more days until HIFF! We're getting so excited at HIFF headquarters as we prepare to host our visiting filmmakers and programmers. 

Hailing from Charlevoix in Québec, Simon Lavoie moved to Montréal in 1998 to pursue film studies at the Université du Québec à Montréal. His early short and mid-range films made between 2003 and 2007 include Une chapelle blanche, which won him a Jutra Award in 2006. Two years later, Simon Lavoie wrote and directed his first feature film, Le déserteur, a period drama that was screened in over 40 cinemas in Québec. In 2011, he co-wrote and co-directed the feature film Laurentia which premiered at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and received the Best International Feature Award at the Raindance Film Festival in London and the Best Direction at the Polar Lights International Arctic Film Festival in St. Petersburg. Launched at the Festival du nouveau cinema in Montréal, Simon Lavoie’s poetic adaptation of Anne Hébert’s novella The Torrent, was released in cinemas in autumn 2012 to high critical acclaim. In 2015, he co-authored and co-directed the feature film Ceux qui font les révolutions à moitié n’ont fait que se creuser un tombeau (Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves). He started shooting his fifth feature film, La petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettes—loosely inspired by Geétan Soucy’s novel of the same name, in summer 2016.

Simon will be in Halifax to present, Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves on Saturday, June 10 at 3pm. Join us for this incredible screening at Neptune and be sure to stay afterwards for the Q+A period with Simon.