Michel in the Suête

Made from footage from the documentary Suêtes by the same director, this Canadian documentary is certainly one of the best examples out there of what can be drawn, reshaped, and refashioned from existing material. It is also proof that the world of documentaries is far from being reserved solely for pamphleteering speeches, biopics, historical narratives, and humanist or zoological reflections, but that the genre can encompass a broad range, play on several tones and, yes, even deliver outright comedy. The original work from which Michel in the Suête is drawn explores life in the western region of Cape Breton, where the strong winds known as the Suêtes that gust up to 130 km/h prevail. The short film features the artist Michel Williatte-Battet who illustrates the effects of these gusts on daily life. The most mundane tasks or gestures, like hanging laundry on the clothesline or simply getting out of the house and trying to get into the car, turn out to be almost epic adventures, of a slapstick quality entirely — and literally- natural. Evoking both Jacques Tati and Buster Keaton, Nova Scotian filmmaker Neal Livingstone's Michel in the Suête is a hilariously absurd and remarkably effective essay on the struggle between Man and Nature.

Claire Valade
Critic and programmer