On the occasion of the theatrical release of My Son Came Back to Disappear, born from a spontaneous gesture and a non-conventional approach to production, I wanted to share my early films, created in a similar context: a wild desire for cinema, carried forward with the essential support of collaborators.
I am also including in this collection short films made after this highly formative period, during which a cinematic perspective develops in the shadows, in the anxiety of creating without support or recognition. Surveillant marks a turning point, both in terms of production and reception. After that, things weren’t necessarily easier, but they were less solitary. Institutional support made it possible to push these visions further.
From my early documentaries – where a signature style shaped by the use of the long take emerges – to my most recent short film, which breaks away from this language, I have sought to explore the formal potential of cinema.
More drawn to the disruption of the senses than to the rigor of reason.
– Yan Giroux
IL FAUT QUE JE PARLE À MON PÈRE
2007
After a screening of Carlos Reygadas’s *Batalla en el cielo*, spellbound and inspired, Mathieu Jacques and I danced at the Divan Orange, shouting the basics of the script into each other’s ears. That was the beginning of my love affair with long takes.
CUBANOS – LIFE AND DEATH OF A REVOLUTION
2007
One morning, our main protagonist is terrified. A rumor is spreading: a whistleblower has apparently revealed the existence of our documentary. While he hides the raw footage in the jungle, we hide out at an all-inclusive resort. The fear of hidden microphones in our shabby room makes me keenly aware of the mechanisms of the authoritarian regime.
ELEGANT
2009
For a long time, I’d wanted to be in a band and go on tour with a bunch of free-spirited, crazy friends. When I went to the Islands with Chocolat to shoot a music video, I didn’t expect to come back with a documentary—or with the realization that I wasn’t cut out for the rock-and-roll lifestyle.
FRANÇAIS – JULY 14 IN MARSEILLE
2011
After experiencing July 14th in the streets of Marseille, I returned a year later to film the chaos that had terrified me. In the end, a different perspective emerged: less sensationalist, more welcoming and nuanced—much like the city I came to love while living there during my studies.
SURVEILLANT
2011
The foresight regarding certain events, certain texts, and certain places is a mystery. For months, even years, everything seems confusing and vague to me. Then one morning, in the shower, the pieces fall into place: a film emerges from my memories of a summer job. And it is from that park in Sherbrooke that I have traveled the most.
LOST PARADISE LOST
2017
During the final export, a technician tells us that we have to redo all the work: the image is so dark that his equipment is sounding the alarm. I rush over to him, panicked, only to realize that our decision to make a film in black and gray is throwing the machines off. Night is night. It’s meant to be seen in the dark.
STANDARDIZED PATIENT PROGRAM
2022
Making a film often means living the film. Together with Guillaume Corbeil, I wrote a repetitive and alienating daily routine for my character, without realizing that at every stage of production—shooting, editing, sound—I too would become a prisoner of this absurd scenario.