This is the goal of her new project Catapulte, led by the production company Social T, of which she is the CEO. Sherbrooke director Anh Minh Truong, alongside Canadian director Paul Tom, is also joining the mission.
The two filmmakers will support the 16 candidates aged under 30 in the scriptwriting of a short film, from the first draft of an idea to projection on the big screen. Truong on scriptwriting for fiction films, and Tom on documentary.
“These young people will find on their CV a first professional film that they will be able to send to donors to legitimize future subsidies. That’s really how the idea was born,” says the instigator of the project.
Because it can take around ten years for young filmmakers to establish themselves in the cultural world. “It takes so long before you can make your own films because to make a film you need financing, and to be financed you have to have made films,” she says.
A vicious circle that is sometimes difficult to break.
The 25-year-old Sherbrooke filmmaker Antoine Boulanger already sees this. Producing a short film on a low budget sometimes means three years of savings for the young artist who struggles to receive subsidies. In an environment where it is difficult to stand out, according to him.
The Concordia University film student sees the Catapulte program as a limitless opportunity. Now he has the chance to produce a film with some $15,000.
“Grab her puck and show us what you can do.” This is a bit how he perceives this opportunity that Véronique Vigneault is offering him.
It’s a “real chance” to make a name for ourselves among Quebec’s film institutions, he says. “This project really gives us the chance to give us the means to achieve our ambitions.”
“It gives a real framework to create the opportunity,” he says. Because the diploma is not enough, judges Antoine Boulanger. “It shows that you’re probably competent, but we’re not going to give you $200,000 or three million to make your film because you have a degree.”
A dream opportunity
“It’s like a dream come true,” says one of the candidates, Mathilde Bouchard, a film and television student at the École supérieure en Art et technologie des médias at Cégep de Jonquière.
“We don’t often have the chance as a beginning filmmaker to have the opportunity for our project to be financed,” says the 19-year-old from Sherbrooke.
“This is such a great door for us. This is such a great opportunity. […] It’s so difficult coming out of school as a new filmmaker to launch into this world, to have a voice at the beginning, for it to be listened to and for it to be understood,” she continues.
Mathilde Bouchard had worked in the production team of Anh Minh Truong’s feature film Men at night. She now hopes to make her own film, a documentary about her relationship with the climate crisis. A short film in the image of the César-winning documentary Tomorrowproduced in 2015 by the French Cyril Dion and Mélanie Laurent.
Filming Men at night took place over 25 consecutive nights in Estrie. (Courtesy)
“I want to use this opportunity with Catapulte to meet people who have stories to tell and messages to convey,” underlines Mathilde Bouchard.
Regions in the foreground
Producer Véronique Vigneault says she prioritized young filmmakers from the regions in her project. Among the 16 candidates are young people from Estrie, Gaspésie, Mauricie and Saguenay. Young people who left their family nest to make a living from their art in the metropolis, she says.
“I want to prove them the opposite, to demonstrate to them that we can make cinema while continuing to live in the region and that we can develop a sufficiently large network,” says Véronique Vigneault.
Moreover, the majority of filming will take place in Estrie, apart from a few exceptions which require filming elsewhere in the province.
Already some young people, like Mathilde Bouchard and Antoine Boulanger, have been accumulating experience on film sets for several years. Some even had the opportunity to produce short films with “the means at hand”, underlines Véronique Vigneault.
“It’s really about providing all the support tools and financial resources to produce a film that lives up to their talent.”
— Veronique Vigneault
Social T productions launched a fundraising campaign in June which will run until August 1st. The goal is to raise no less than $100,000 to support the initiative and finance half of Catapulte’s short films. “We need funding for this project to exist,” says Véronique Vigneault.
Otherwise, she organizes master classes with various guests recognized in the film industry. Faces are still to be determined, she said. “Most [des jeunes] have already been trained at school. The idea is not to give them lessons, it is really to be able to put them in contact with a professional practice.”
Before starting as a producer at Chasseurs Films and then at Social T productions, Véronique Vigneault held the title of general director of the Estrien Audiovisual and Multimedia Office (BEAM). (André Vuillemin/La Tribune Archives)
In addition to this supervision, Catapulte also allows the next generation to obtain financial support and visibility in the community, both locally and internationally.
The program is divided into three parts and will last nearly two years. The short films selected for production will be screened at various festivals to give them exposure, adds Véronique Vigneault. She assures that she will support filmmakers whose projects are not selected in their search for an alternative grant that will also allow them to fly on their own.
