The films of Jean-François Caissy
Born in the village of Carleton-sur-Mer in Quebec’s Gaspésie region, Jean-François Caissy works as an independent artist in the fields of cinema and visual arts. After studying photography and making a promising debut with the documentary Mating Season (2005), he directed Journey's end (2009), which earned him his first international recognition. His subsequent films, Guidelines (2014) and First Stripes (2018), also gained international acclaim, screening at the Berlinale, the BFI London Film Festival, the Viennale, Hot Docs, and MoMA’s Doc Fortnight. Alongside his filmmaking, Caissy maintains a visual arts practice. His video installation Derby (2011) was presented at Centre Clark in Montreal and at Anthology Film Archives in New York. More recently, his video installation Exposition agricole (2017) was presented at the Cinémathèque québécoise in Montreal and at Espace F gallery in Matane. His most recent film, Kindergarten (2025), had its world premiere at RIDM, where it received the Special Jury Prize.
3 products
Guidelines
Subscription access
_Guidelines_ explores the world of adolescence through a series of tableaux that illustrate the occasionally trying existence of young people at a rural secondary school. Emphasizing the contrasts between the regulated environment of the classroom and the beckoning freedom of the great outdoors, the film is structured around the teens’ meetings with various authority figures in the institution ...
First Stripes
Subscription access
Over the course of a 12-week intensive training program, young adults are gradually transformed into members of the Canadian Armed Forces. For these future soldiers, the group is now more important than the individual, and the country comes before oneself. Without judgment, _First Stripes_ offers an immersion into the singular world of the military through their basic training. A mandatory step...
Journey's End
Subscription access
In a remote corner of the Quebec countryside, between a road and a headland that plunges into the sea, an abandoned motel has been converted into a retirement home. _Journey’s End_ is an elegiac exploration of life and aging, set in a place where time seems to have ground to a halt.
Guidelines
Subscription access
_Guidelines_ explores the world of adolescence through a series of tableaux that illustrate the occasionally trying existence of young people at a rural secondary school. Emphasizing the contrasts between the regulated environment of the classroom and the beckoning freedom of the great outdoors, the film is structured around the teens’ meetings with various authority figures in the institution ...
First Stripes
Subscription access
Over the course of a 12-week intensive training program, young adults are gradually transformed into members of the Canadian Armed Forces. For these future soldiers, the group is now more important than the individual, and the country comes before oneself. Without judgment, _First Stripes_ offers an immersion into the singular world of the military through their basic training. A mandatory step...
Journey's End
Subscription access
In a remote corner of the Quebec countryside, between a road and a headland that plunges into the sea, an abandoned motel has been converted into a retirement home. _Journey’s End_ is an elegiac exploration of life and aging, set in a place where time seems to have ground to a halt.
