Gatineau director, designer and musician Julien Morissette began the year creating, writing and producing numerous projects. Between good and less good funding announcements, the presentation of new podcasts and a festival whose enthusiasm does not lie, the artistic director of Transistor Media admits to finishing the year 2024 well motivated for the future.
This fall, Julien Morissette presented the third season of Hauntedwhich borrows the codes of a real documentary and horror film while using real stories to turn them into a form of fiction.
A true gateway to the cultural and historical heritage of the Outaouais, stakeholders from each of the regional county municipalities are now raising their hands for Julien Morissette to visit them. He also presented in Montreal Where the dust settles before taking top honors by winning the Artist of the Year prize, awarded by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec during the Culturiades evening.
Q What is your best memory of 2024?
R In February, I took a trip to Brest to the Length of Waves festival, which is a radio and podcast festival in Brittany and which was celebrating its 20th edition. Transistor was invited to present a few projects including a broadcast of Haunted in a listening room in front of an audience. That moment was really the highlight of the year for me. We brought the stories of the Pontiac more specifically to an open and curious public who wanted to live an audio experience differently and differently.
By going to Brest, I was able to finish the production of Turbulence: navigating anxiety disordersa project that took six years. The series ends when I travel to Brest. The trip was one of the last stops.
Q Your artistic or cultural favorite of 2024?
R Charlotte Cardin's show at the FMG. It wasn't a particularly exciting spectacle in itself. She's great at performing and her musicians are good, but there were so many people. It was a historic Thursday for the FMG. There were so many people of all ages, from all backgrounds, from Ottawa and Gatineau. It mobilized a lot of people and I had rarely seen so many people at Parc de la Baie. Just to see that a cultural event could bring together so many people. It was a moment when I was happy to experience this in Outaouais, in Gatineau.
The presence of Charlotte Cardin at the FMG attracted a historic crowd for a Thursday evening at Parc de la Baie. (Patrick Woodbury/Archives Le Droit)
In terms of literature, Japanese author Haruki Murakami was my companion throughout the year. I read his novels, his essays on creation, music, running. It was both a comforting read and a great discovery in 2024.
Q A disappointment in 2024?
R It hasn't been an easy year for media and culture for funding. Concretely, when QUB radio decided to stop making podcasts, it affected me personally. It saddened me because there aren't many big players doing French podcasts in Quebec anymore. We saw an important ally of Transistor disappear. It was with them that we made the series Summaries since 2018. It was a big piece and it reminded me of what a fragile ecosystem we are in right now. All the cuts in the media in general, I found it difficult.
Q Your favorite holiday tradition?
R What I really enjoy during the holidays is taking time with family, friends and loved ones to experience certain music and films together. There are classics that I listen to on vinyl with my children, my siblings and my parents. Whether it's Bing Crosby, the Beach Boys at Christmas, plus new classics like Pierre Lapointe and Chilly Gonzales. It is precious to have a relationship with an object that is not just listening in a cloud. I am very attached to the tradition of Cinema Gift and my children are too. They are eight and twelve and it is still an event to sit together and watch movies in the living room with popcorn.
Q What do you wish for us collectively for 2025?
R I think of the community of Gatineau and I wish us to have the means to achieve our cultural ambitions. We do a lot of work to ensure we have healthy artists, organizations and infrastructures and this is not always at the top of the priorities. I understand it because there are public funding issues in many sectors, but still.
We have been equipping ourselves for several years, particularly with the new cultural policy, but now it is important to see concrete actions, to feel that there is a commitment from the municipality, but also from other levels of government. I am thinking of the provincial government in particular, which wants to make up for a historic delay in funding that affects culture. I think that in 2025, I hope that people will be able to have access to culture in a free and accessible way in old city centers. I hope it will be everywhere and for everyone.
From December 23 to 31, discover Our personalities of the year 2024!
