Those Who Walk Softly Die Without a Trace

Both in his fiction and documentary work, Bernard Émond appreciates turning a listening ear to silence and the meaning that it conveys. He likes to show the beauty that transcends the little things. The story of Henri Turcotte, a man to whom history has accorded little importance, had just what it took to touch Émond’s heart.

Driven by the desire to erect a kind of cinematographic monument to his memory, Émond directs the phantom presence of his subject through different narrative strata: the accounts of those who knew Turcotte, a sequence following an artist who is crafting a sculpture in his honour using objects that belonged to him, all accompanied by a poetic narrative read by Pierre Falardeau, whose verve and presence Émond had always admired. This film, while completely fabricated for the screen, remains nonetheless well anchored in reality. Émond positions himself with his subjects as equals, always with infinite respect and a level of recognition for them that is rarely seen in the field. A kind of lightness and grace prevails throughout the story, which seeks to return a sense of meaning to the late Turcotte’s life. In this way, Those Who Walk Softly Die Without a Trace succeeds in crafting a luminous and dignified portrait of this simple man, and in telling his vivid, touching and universal story.

Pascale Ferland
Filmmaker, teacher and programmer

Presented in collaboration with