Gilles Groulx
| Gilles Groulx | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 30, 1931 Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Died | August 22, 1994 (aged 63) Longueuil, Canada |
| Occupation |
Film director Film editor Screenwriter |
| Years active | 1958 - 1983 |
Gilles Groulx (May 30, 1931 in Montreal, Quebec – August 22, 1994) was a Canadian film director. He grew up in a working-class family with 14 children. After studying business in school, he went to work in an office but found the white-collar environment too stultifying. Deciding that the only way out was to become an intellectual, he attended the École du meuble de Montréal for a time and was a supporter of Borduas' automatiste movement. He also made 8 mm amateur films, which landed him a job as picture editor in the news department of the CBC. After three short personal films that confirmed his talent, he was hired by the National Film Board (NFB) at what was the beginning of the candid eye movement in 1956.
His first film with the NFB was Les Raquetteurs (1958). Co-directed with Michel Brault, and including the important contribution of sound recordist it surpassed the candid eye approach, establishing for the first time in film history, the filmmakers in the midst of the ongoing event. Seeking a truthful relation to the captured film reality, sound is also captured live. The film, not devoid of comical aspects, is also seen as an important step in anthropological cinematography. It captures without judgement, a social phenomenon that would have seemed unimportant in its archaism and triviality (a snowshoe convention on asphalt!), thus revealing with documented distanciation elements of popular Quebec culture that were previously disdained.
In 1961, Groulx's focus shifted from the crowd to the individual, with his short documentary, Golden Gloves.
Voir Miami (1962) revealed Groulx's poetic side. Although it presents an indictment of contemporary America, it does so in a poetic, almost lyrical style.
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