Fernand Dansereau

Fernand Dansereau is a Quebec director, producer and screenwriter born in Montreal in 1928. In 1950, after completing his classical studies, he became a journalist at Le Devoir, where he was in charge of labor relations. Dansereau joined the National Film Board of Canada in 1955. There, he held a variety of positions in the film industry: on-screen animator, screenwriter, director, producer and finally head of French production. As a producer, he took part in a number of works that marked the golden age of direct cinema: Golden Gloves by Gilles Groulx, Bûcherons de la Manouane by Arthur Lamothe, Pour la suite du monde by Pierre Perrault, Michel Brault and Marcel Carrière. He then left the NFB for the private sector, continuing to produce or direct over fifty films. He also contributed to the development of the founding institutions of Quebec cinema, serving as president of the Institut Québécois du Cinéma (now SODEC) and founding the INIS (Institut national de l'image et du son). He also left his mark on Quebec television, writing four series, including the adaptation of Arlette Cousture's seminal work Les filles de Caleb (1990-1991). In the early 2000s, he directed a portrait of his aging cousin, ecologist Pierre Dansereau (Quelques raisons d'espérer). Old age then marked a new phase in his career, leading him to create a documentary trilogy on the subject. A true doyen of cinema, Dansereau is still creatively active despite his advanced age, notably as a painter, and is preparing a film in the form of an artistic testament.