Maël has been surrounded by diverse cultural horizons from a very young age. Through Cap Vert and the Azores, from Budapest to Brussels, and finally to Montreal, where he was born, Maël has formed his very own worldview. While studying cinema in Paris, Maël encounters the work of Pierre Perreault and the cinéma direct – these discoveries spark Maël’s interest in documentary film. He then decides to return to Montreal to pursue the rest of his film studies. It is through DAVAÏ, created in 2011 by Jérémie Nolet et Guillaume Chaboud, that Maël creates and produces his documentary works. The human condition and the perspective of the world are intertwined within the subjects he works with.
In 2011, he decides to leave for the Azores to document the disappearing tradition of whale hunters. The transmission of eroding knowledge is at the core of this piece. In the midst of editing the film, Maël returns to the camera to capture the collective École de la Montagne Rouge, at the first steps of a social movement that would inhabit the province of Quebec for eight months. Very attached to Pierre Perreault and his legacy, Maël is currently developing a parallel project about his wife, Yolande Simard Perrault, who was at the origin of her husband’s work.
Filmography
Aujourd’hui pour moi demain pour toi (2013 / 97 min)
Recep et ses pigeons (2013 / 11 min)
Lumières d’Istanbul (2012 / 7 min)