Self(less) Portrait

Danic, when I found out about your sudden passing, I was in shock. I watched your films nonstop. This ensemble piece is dense and atypical, helping us discover a myriad of human beings—of all ages, of all origins. You let your camera linger on your subjects with such tenderness and ease in stating facts, without a shred of pity or voyeurism. Your complex experience of an imperfect world, and your talent for sharing it with nuance and humour, made you an extraordinary filmmaker.

Over the course of your narratives, your subjects lay themselves bare, forcefully. Like a melody, your voice melds with theirs. As spectators, we become an integral part of these stories, these fragments of society which, one by one, join to make a whole.

Self(less) Portrait started to take form for you as the essence of your body of work. When it came out, you were so proud, as if this film were some magical omen. “I always dreamed of being an artist, and I realized that I hadn’t created anything, or invented anything, before this film. I was a director. Now I’m a filmmaker.” (Interview (in French) with Danic Champoux)

You were, without a doubt, a true filmmaker, and your voice will echo like no other through Quebec’s cinematographic landscape—and through our hearts—forever, well beyond the limits of the screen.

Safe travels, friend. Thank you for everything.

Pascale Ferland
Filmmaker, teacher and programmer