A TENT ON MARS

60 min, Documentary, Quebec, Canada, 2008
Directed byLuc Renaud & Martin Bureau
Produced bySonia Despars (Productions Thalie)
LanguageFrench
Short descriptionSchefferville, a mining town active in the 80s which was since abandonned, is now the new home of the Innu People.
Film subjects Indigenous , Work Environment
Regis du cinemas, general

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Film details

Synopsis
Three decades after the shuttering of the mining town of Schefferville, the Innu people, who moved in after the non-natives abandoned the town, are facing a new challenge: the iron mines are about to be reopened. Land, identity and legitimacy are central to the dialogue between peoples locked in parallel struggles, the Québécois and the First Nations. Two nations that claim to be colonized, one of which sometimes takes on the paradoxical role of colonizer. Who does the land belong to? Do the natives and the Québécois share the same right to self-determination? A Tent on Mars is a lyrical reflection on a profoundly complex situation.

 

Credits
Script and Direction : Martin Bureau, Luc Renaud

Direction of Photography : Martin Bureau

Sound : Robert Thivierge

Editing : Martin Bureau, Luc Renaud

Music : Fred Fortin

Sound Mixing : Jérôme Boiteau

Original Idea : Luc Renaud

Production : Sonia Despars (Productions Thalie)

 

Financial Partners

SODEC

Conseil des Arts du Canada

 

Direction

Luc Renaud

Born in Hull, Luc Renaud works and lives in Quebec City. After studies in geography (Université de Sherbrooke, 1997) and oceanography (Université du Québec à Rimouski, 2000), he made a number of trips abroad combining cultural experiences with social fieldwork in Africa and Latin America. He also spent 15 months with the Matimekush-Lac-John Innu in subarctic Quebec, a journey that sparked the idea for his documentary Une tente sur Mars (2008), co-directed with Martin Bureau.

Martin Bureau

Raised in Lac Saint-Jean, painter and video maker Martin Bureau lives and works in Saint-Jean-de-l’île-d’Orléans. For over a decade, he has been exhibiting his paintings and video installations at venues and events that include the Bienal de Video y Nuevos Medios (Santiago, Chile), Galerie Lacerte Art Contemporain (Quebec City/Montreal), L’Oeil de poisson and Manif d’art 2 (Quebec City), Galerie Orange (Montréal) and the Drabinsky and Lonsdale galleries in Toronto. His works feature in many public and private collections. He co-directed in 2008 his first documentary Une tente sur Mars with Luc Renaud, with whom he worked again in 2012 for the documentary Playa Coloniale.

Awards

Jutra 2010
Finaliste for Best Documentary Montreal
Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québécois 2009
Jury's Special Mention for Best First or Second Documentary Montreal
Festival de cinéma des 3 amériques 2009
Official Competition Quebec
DocuDays Beyrouth 2009
Official Competition Beirut, Lebanon