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ROSA

a film by Jean-Michel Gervais & Gabriel J. Lemay

2021 - Québec - Drama

After being touched by a patient's story, a psychiatrist learns the hard way that appearances are sometimes deceptive. 

19

minutes

1:85.1

DCP / QuickTime

Color

Digital

Stéréo

French with english subtitles

CAST

Benoit Brière, Théodore Pellerin, Maxime Cormier

CREW

DIRECTION : Jean-Michel Gervais - Gabriel J. Lemay / SCREENPLAY : Jean-Michel Gervais / PRODUCTION : Jean-François Roesler - Yannick Sadler (Exogène Films) / DIRECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHY : Derek Branscombe / ART DIRECTION : Judith Maltais - Florence Maltais / SOUND : Louis Desparois / CASTING : Casting VTB / EDITING : Justin Richard-Dostie / COLOR GRADING : Simon Boissonneaux / SOUND DESIGN : Didier Bergeron

FESTIVALS

  • Cinema on the Bayou (2021)

  • Rome Prisma Awards (Février 2021)

🏆 Best Short film, Best Poster, Best Screenwriter, Best leading actor

  • LA Indie Film Festival (2021)

  • Vancouver Independent Film Festival (Printemps 2021)

🏆 Best Canadian narrative Short

  • New York Indie shorts awards (Saison Février-Avril 2021)

🏆 Best Foreign short

  • USA Film Festival (2021)

🏆 Honorable Mention, Narrative

  • 17e Gala Prends ça court! (2021)

🏆 Prix La Boîte à Fanny

🏆 Prix Attraction

  • Festival REGARD (2021) *Compétition officielle

  • Festival du Film court en Plein air de Grenoble (2021)

  • Courts du Québec - Short film Corner Cannes (2021)

  • Off-Courts Trouville (2021)

  • Les Percéides (2021)

  • Regina International Film Festival (2021)

  • FIN Atlantic Film Festival (2021)

  • Festival CINEMANIA (2021)

  • Shorts That Are No Pants (2021)

  • Silver Wave Film Festival (2021)

  • Un poing c'est court (2022)

  • Made Here Film Festival (2022)

  • Les Rendez-Vous Québec Cinéma (2022)

  • Reel Shorts Film Festival (2022)

JEAN-MICHEL GERVAIS

I'm currently a graduate student in philosphy. Rosa's story is partially based on my personal experience. It originated from reflections on notions of consent and individual right in the context of psychiatric care. A patient, if considered 'a danger for himself or others' can be held against his will for an undertermined amount of time, kept away from his loved ones, forced to take unwanted medication, and even physically restrained if necessary.

 

Rosa tells the story of a conflict in between a patient's legitimate desire to be free, or at least treated humanly, and the consciencious caution of a bureaucratic well-intentionned physician. A trusting relationship emerges from this unfriendly situation in between the two characters, notwithstanding the inevitable ambiguities of a power relationship.

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GABRIEL J. LEMAY

Born in 1992 of a business teacher mother and orthodontist father, both great sportspeople, the elder of three had a fertile imagination and constantly reinvented the world surrounding him. This is what mainly characterized his youth. For him, films unavoidably became a passion. Very early on, he found usefulness in his creative potential. Along with music among others, he discovered himself through different artistic mediums. The way to follow had defined itself. Even if nothing could then ever really go beyond the backyard, the playroom, and the drawing table, the boy couldn’t be stopped as he’d escape all day.

The alternative rock act with experimental tendencies Whale Street is what took the bigger part of his time from 2009 on in parallel with rewarding college studies in theatre. The band for which he was the drummer made him travel and live some of his most creative experiences to date. After a series of regional and national contests won, as well as the release of the album Prémisses, the flame went out for them. The young man found an opportunity to begin university studies in film production at the Concordia University Mel Oppenheim School of Cinema which he finished in the spring of 2016.

This period was for him one of the most fecund. He directed a multitude of short films and interdisciplinary projects, in addition to writing, and acting. His work was shown in every corner of the province, elsewhere in Canada, and finally internationally, (66th Berlin International Film Festival). His first substantial directing experiences will only have deepened his understanding of the value of the actor on screen. In the end, his years of stage performance will have served him in his apprehension of the seventh art.

Today, his efforts are concentrated on the development of a new cinema, as much in front of the camera as behind it, be it as director, screenwriter, or producer, with an occasional passage in the world of music. To bring characters to life in the larger perspective of building an artwork in all of the task’s whole complexity and beauty, in various ways corresponding to a different original context, is all he aspires to.

His process has been qualified as “honest”, “cathartic”, and “edifying”, sometimes characterized by a luminous aspect, other times by a darker one, but always described as staging situations of vulnerable protagonists with the world on their shoulders, lost in it, and seeking to be heard. Three Days Till Marrakesh, released in 2018, was his professional directorial debut. The short film Rosa, completed in 2020, is his second fiction piece. 

FILMOGRAPHIE
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2018

 THREE DAYS TILL MARRAKESH  ● COURT-MÉTRAGE FICTION

  • Réalisateur / scénariste

2016

 CE QU'IL RESTE  ● COURT-MÉTRAGE FICTION DE JÉRÉMY COMTE

  • Scénariste

Stéphanie Demers-Hébert

Stratégie festivals

+1(438)388-2068 poste 5

stephanie@wlcmaboard.com

Valentin Verrier

directeur général

+1(438)388-2068 poste 4

distribution@wlcmaboard.com

Marc-Olivier Blackburn

Coordonateur à la distribution

+1(438)388-2068 poste 3

coordo@wlcmaboard.com

CONTACT DISTRIBUTION
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