Diary of a Father

With Diary of a Father, Paul-Claude Demers continues an intimate exploration begun with Where I'm From (2014) and A Woman, My Mother (2019). Once again, he maps the absences that shaped his childhood as an adopted child—both that of his biological father and his once-distant, now-deceased adoptive father. But this time, another role shades his experience: he is a father himself, forced to live far from his child, terrified of being absent in the same way. Memory of the past, search for origins, anxiety about the future—everything is now perceived through the lens of the present embodied by his beloved daughter across the ocean.

This present takes the form of a conscious flow of images and moments, fragments of daily life, dreamed sensations, or fleeting impressions, filmed in ashen black and white—the color of gray days, uncertain memories, and overlapping eras. As its title suggests, Diary of a Father is a personal journal, an open and moving book guided by the filmmaker’s voice. Yet this intimate collection also delineates a shared territory, where even the smallest details carry emotional weight, evoking the fragile children that linger within adult bodies.

Apolline Caron-Ottavi
Writer and programmer
Cinémathèque québécoise