Jean-François Lesage
After studying law, Jean-François Lesage began working as a journalist for Radio-Canada television in Alberta and British Columbia. In 1998, moved by a close-up of Gong Li in the film Red Sorghum, he flew to Beijing. There he spent six years in contact with independent Chinese filmmakers such as Wang Bing, Zhao Liang and Yang Lina. Inspired by their energy and courage, he directed his first creative documentary, Sweet Nights Sour Nights (2004), and then, with his brother Philippe Lesage, How Can You Tell if the Little Fish are Happy? (2009), a chronicle of the summer of a group of young people in Beijing. Back in Montreal, he directed A Mile End Tale (2013), the closing film of Visions du Réel, then A Summer Love (2015), Grand Prize of the RIDM national feature film competition. This was followed by The Hidden River (2017), Special Jury Prize of the RIDM National Feature Film Competition, and his sixth film, Prayer for a Lost Mitten (2020), Best Canadian Feature Film at Hot Docs.
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Prayer for a Lost Mitten
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Night has fallen and Montreal is under a blanket of snow. At the City Transit Company, people line up at the lost and found office where upon reflection, losing something becomes a symbol of a deeper loss. This creative documentary is sometimes melancholic, sometimes festive yet always compassionate. In fact, it makes you appreciate Winter.
A Summer Love
It’s summer in Montreal and everyone is in love… except you. Late at night, on the mountain that overlooks the city, couples lay in the grass and linger in after-hours picnics, bodies move in closer towards one another, glances are exchanged. You roam from gathering to gathering, from budding couple to budding couple, never able to feel this fever, nor to embrace it. You want to feel their wond...
A Mile End Tale
When the human soul experiences a rupture, it can seem irreconcilable. Is there an antidote to heartbreak? Wandering through his neighbourhood after dusk, a young man, searching for answers, inspires friends and strangers to open their hearts to him. Encounters, confessions, slips: the autumn night sheds inhibitions.
The Hidden River
In the heart of a deep forest runs a river. On its banks, men and women sit and talk, opening up to one another. In this remote setting conducive to reflection, they wonder what it takes to attain inner peace, debate the wisdom of passing something on to future generations, and realized that, in love, the perfect "soulmate" is a near-impossible ideal. The sun sets behind the mountains and the s...
Prayer for a Lost Mitten
Subscription access
Night has fallen and Montreal is under a blanket of snow. At the City Transit Company, people line up at the lost and found office where upon reflection, losing something becomes a symbol of a deeper loss. This creative documentary is sometimes melancholic, sometimes festive yet always compassionate. In fact, it makes you appreciate Winter.
A Summer Love
It’s summer in Montreal and everyone is in love… except you. Late at night, on the mountain that overlooks the city, couples lay in the grass and linger in after-hours picnics, bodies move in closer towards one another, glances are exchanged. You roam from gathering to gathering, from budding couple to budding couple, never able to feel this fever, nor to embrace it. You want to feel their wond...
A Mile End Tale
When the human soul experiences a rupture, it can seem irreconcilable. Is there an antidote to heartbreak? Wandering through his neighbourhood after dusk, a young man, searching for answers, inspires friends and strangers to open their hearts to him. Encounters, confessions, slips: the autumn night sheds inhibitions.
The Hidden River
In the heart of a deep forest runs a river. On its banks, men and women sit and talk, opening up to one another. In this remote setting conducive to reflection, they wonder what it takes to attain inner peace, debate the wisdom of passing something on to future generations, and realized that, in love, the perfect "soulmate" is a near-impossible ideal. The sun sets behind the mountains and the s...
