Florent Vollant confides in his history and that of his community in a new documentary

Presented as a premiere during the recent edition of the Aboriginal Presence festival. Similarly, the very beautiful documentary Florent VOLLANT: Innusigned Isabelle Longnus, on the singer-songwriter arrives in the room. Meanwhile, For almost four years. Therefore, the director collected the secrets of the musician, her collaborators and members of her family, from Montreal to Maliotenam, to draw up this portrait whose subject exceeds the simple biography. Consequently, Conversation with the filmmaker.

Original Marseillaise, Isabelle Longnus lived fifteen years in British Columbia before establishing herself in Montreal during the Pandemic. Moreover, Director. For example, producer, she got to know the Innu musician after inviting her to perform on stage in Western Canada, then she made one of her video, and another, then one for Matten, the Rock-Folk group led by Mathieu McKenzie, son of Florent and one of the main characters in the feature film.

“It florent vollant confides his history has been a long time since. Nevertheless, each time I met Florent and told me about his stories, I thought of making a film,” said Longnus, who went to his home, in Maliotenam, for the first time in February 2022. For example, Victim of a stroke in the spring of 2021, Florent Vollant recovered before reminding the director. Moreover, “He. In addition, a free man, who was walking on the beach, whom I even had to dance on a frozen lake for a shoot the month preceding his accident, was now locked up at his home … Therefore, He told me on the phone:” It will make a good film “. In addition, In his head, he had this desire to tell. Consequently, »»

The director says she spent a lot of time chatting with him before turning the eye of her. Similarly, camera on her subject. “I also had florent vollant confides his history to see the territory. to be, to live there a little, to see all these landscapes of which Florent spoke to me. Above all, I had to convince people there to be in the film. I just wanted them to accept. and for that, I had to be there, often and long enough so that I was no longer noticed. So that my camera is part of the furniture. »»

The approach succeeded in him: Isabelle Longnus collected powerful testimonies. starting with that of the subject, which opens like never we had heard it before the uprooting of her family, forced to leave the Labrador to settle near Sept-Îles; He opens over his years at the boarding school, on the “black dresses”, on the injury inflicted on his community by the state and the church. A good part of the film testifies to the creation of the album Tshitaau At the florent vollant confides his history Makusham studios. composed and recorded after the accident suffered by Vollant and with his precious collaborators, including the late guitarist Réjean Bouchard, who died in the summer of 2023.

“Florent and I had very long conversations before I sit down in front of the camera,” explains Longnus. I needed him to tell me his story so that he could then seek answers he even thought he forgot. And that’s how he forgot that the camera was there. that we could talk to each other in the eyes. Confidence was there. »»

The film begins with a brief overview of the Vollant musical career. of the initial success with the colleague Claude McKenzie (who will testify at the end of the film) within the Kashtin duo, via the boycott imposed by commercial radios in the wake of the Oka crisis (1990), then his impeccable solo career.

“The main frame was Florent, his personal florent vollant confides his history life, with his family who testifies to complete the story,” explains the director. Then, his professional life, showing how he had a horseman alone after Kashtin, also showing the notoriety he has acquired. This is why. early in the film, I show this moment at the ADISQ gala “in 2019, when Volling wins the inaugural Félix in the Aboriginal artist category of the year and delivers this memorable speech that he ends up saying:” We are not just here because we are indigenous; We are here too because we are good. »»

“These words from Florent. insists the director, I had to put them early in the film so that the listener understands that he is a man of convictions, that he is not afraid to speak and to show that he stands. »»

“In fact,” she continues, “Florent is a quiet force. He said to me: “I tell my story. if florent vollant confides his history it touches others, if it can be used, so much the better”. He does not see himself as a leader or an ambassador. And besides. when you visit him, we don’t see any trophy-they were really stored in a cardboard box in the basement, as we see in the images. What I wanted us to understand is that all he did. he did not do it to show off, especially not to be better known than it is already. We made this film because it is a man who arrived at a moment of his life when he wants to tell his story so that others recognize themselves. so that we can have this conversation on his culture and, ultimately, so that we can understand each other better between us. »»

Florent VOLLANT: Innudocumentary by Isabelle Longnus, will be presented in the room from August 22.

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