According to the Dictionnaire du cinéma québecois, Denys Desjardins is a “multifaceted filmmaker with an endlessly curious spirit whose boundless love of cinema permeates his entire output.”
He first discovered cinema as a child, when his father would shoot, edit and project films on their basement walls. A revelation!
While studying film, Desjardins worked as an orderly in a mental health care institution and discovered the world through the eyes of those marginalized and forgotten by society.
Thereafter, his camera became a tool for building relationships and telling the world’s stories — one film at a time.
Truly passionate about the art of cinema, Desjardins has put his hand to every aspect of film production, from camera operator to director, in addition to writing, research, and editing.
In 1990, he launched his own production company, Les Films du Centaure.
Since then, he has directed and produced some 20 films as well as numerous websites, working both in the private sector and with the National Film Board of Canada.
With the latter, he also collaborated on the DVD box sets of the films of Gilles Groulx, Michel Brault, and Pierre Perrault.
A socially engaged filmmaker, Desjardins has for the past three decades been part of the ongoing battle to defend and uphold artistic institutions.
He has served on numerous boards of directors, including the Soirée des Jutra (now Gala Québec Cinéma) and the Rendez-vous du cinéma québecois (now Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma), and is a founding member of Québec Cinéma.
Producer and creator of the website cinemaduquebec.com, he is also the founder of DOCfest – Pour la suite du DOC, an annual festival held on Isle-aux-Coudres that’s dedicated to the future of documentary filmmaking.
Filmography
SHORT FILMS
THE DOLL LADY (1996)
AGAINST TIME AND OBLIVION (1997)
ALMANAC (1999) ME “ROBERT” BOB (2003) PETER AND THE PENNY (2005)
PENN AR BED (2006)
BACK TO THE NEW WORLD (2008)
KAPADOKYA (2013)
THE CHILDHOOD OF CINEMA (2019)
ON THE CARIBOUS TRAIL (2023)
FEATURE FILMS
MY EYE FOR A CAMERA (2001)
BEIGN HUMAN (2006)
THE GREAT RESISTANCE (2007)
THE ZONE (2017)
THE CASTLE (2020)
THE INDUSTRY OF OLDNE$$ (2021)
I LOST MY MOM (2022)
QUEBEC CINEMA (selective filmography)
REBELS WITH A CAMERA (2006)
FROM OFFICE TO BOX OFFICE (2009)
THE PRIVATE LIFE OF ONYX FILMS (2010)
THE PRIVATE LIFE OF CINEMA (2011)
THE TAKE (2014)