..Has anyone of you seen any of the Quebec films? What do you think of
..them? Have they had a good criticism? Do you think many people have seen
..them? Is there a place for french canadian films on the american market?
..I know that some of them have won awards in some american festivals.
 
"Mon Oncle Antoine" won the first (I think) Hugo at the Chicago Film
Festival a very long time ago, and Jutra exhibited at the CFF a few other
times.
    I have been on the Ecumenical Jury in Montreal 7 times and looked at a
lot of Quebecois films over that time.  Most have not been very good, and
the market people have not been very interested.  "Black Robe" had a
moderate run in the US, and "Jesus of Montreal" was well received though not
widely shown here.
    The audiences in Montreal all want to like the Canadian films, but they
frequently walk out.  I suspect it has a lot to do with the level of
financing and the level of film studies and criticism in Quebec province.
 For a good journal, however, get Sequence, in French, from Leo Bonneville
in Montreal.  Write the Festival and get his address.  I had it, but it is
in my office at work.
 
                        Gerald Forshey
                        professor of Humanities
                        Richard J. Daley College
                        City Colleges of Chicago
 
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