HISTORY
« InformAction started out to raise awareness about international situations and cultures that had generally escaped media attention. Today, while we have gained a little wisdom and experience over the years, we believe our films still retain the innovative approach of our earlier works, with a preference for the politically incorrect, a penchant for innovative ideas and unusual characters, while offering a window on the world and all it has to offer. »
How we started
InformAction’s very first documentaries were produced with the support of the Office du film du Québec, headed by Raymond-Marie Léger. In our first films, we wanted to expose the issues behind certain international conflicts that were ignored by the mainstream media, and to take a stand on human rights violations in countries which never made the headlines, especially developing nations. Our first documentary, Anyanya, focused on a forgotten war in southern Sudan which broke out in 1956 and lasted until 2005, with an estimated 2 million dead. In the company of Sudanese rebel forces in 1971, our crew followed the radio coverage of Idi Amin’s takeover of neighbouring Uganda.
While on this shoot in Africa, our crew also produced the short documentaries Tam-tam et balafons about Cameroon during the era of Cardinal Léger, and Yvongélisation, dealing with Canada’s development efforts in Africa, as seen through the eyes of Quebec humorist Yvon Deschamps.
During the production of Contre-censure (1976), crew members changed their names in order to avoid future problems obtaining travel visas. Nathalie Barton assumed the alias Morgane Laliberté, while Gérard Le Chêne became Alain d'Aix, a nom de plume which has stuck with him for all his subsequent films. Contre-censure explores the darker side of the Cameroon war of independence and reveals why the book “Main basse sur le Cameroun” (Free for All in Cameroon) by the great writer Mongo Béti was banned in his own country, confiscated from bookstores in France, then re-published in Québec by Léandre Bergeron. The film won an award at the Grenoble Film Festival.
During this difficult neo-colonial period, another book was also banned in France: “Prison d’Afrique” (African Prison), which exposed the brutal repression in Guinea Conakry under the dictatorship of Sekou Touré, until then considered a courageous third world militant. This situation provided the premise for the documentary La danse avec l’aveugle (If You Dance with a Blind Man) (1978). Jean-Paul Alata, author of the banned book, appeared in the film, and was subsequently assassinated. The film circulated clandestinely in Guinea and went on to win several international awards.
Another film that took a stand against censorship was Alain d’Aix’s Le dur désir de dire (1981). It paints the portrait of René Vautier, a filmmaker from Brittany (France) who produced the very first anti-colonial film, Afrique 50. This film actually triggered a series of 1970s hunger strikes to protest censorship of Vautier’s feature-length films in France.
The Mercenary Game (1983) took our crew from the US to the Caribbean and from Europe to Africa, on the trail of troubled inpiduals who act out their fantasies as mercenary heroes in the third world and are manipulated by underhanded superpowers. This film marks the start of a long-lasting collaboration between InformAction and cinematographer Philippe Lavalette. On that shoot in Madagascar, Jean-Claude Bürger also directed a gripping portrait of Quebec’s former Minister Jacques Couture, who had returned to his initial humble vocation of priest. Bürger also directed L'âge de guerre (1977), a short film which uses the medium of children’s drawings to expose the ruthlessness of the war between Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Turbulence Ahead (1984) pursued the search for geopolitical truth along the oil trail in Southern Africa. The film was broadcast on Radio-Québec, as were Le dur désir de dire and The Mercenary Game. During the 80s, the series Transmission d'expériences créoles (Creole Experiences) revealed the existence of a cultural entity stretching from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, composed of 12 million inpiduals who were then just beginning to get to know each other. The documentary White Justice (1985), co-directed by Françoise Wera and Morgane Laliberté, examined the cultural stakes at play for the Inuit of the Quebec Arctic (broadcast by Radio-Canada).
Since the 90's
In the early 90s, two “documentary comedies” featuring Denis Bouchard - The Singles Games (by Louis Fraser and Alain d'Aix), and Tristan and Juliette or Love in the Year 2000 (Isabelle Turcotte and Alain d'Aix) – opened up fresh, innovative subject matter and a renewed exploration of form.
InformAction remained true to its love of Africa with three series on African cinema co-produced with Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast for broadcast on TV5, and created in collaboration with Ariane Émond, Ousseynou Diop, Yves Langlois and Maka Kotto. In 1995, the Rwandan tragedy triggered Rwanda : Like Sun in the Night, a series of 30 inspiring 2-minute stories of survivors of the genocide. This was followed by the documentary Les Racines de l’espoir (The Roots of Hope), directed by Marc Renaud in collaboration with Gil Courtemanche.
In the 1990s, Nathalie Barton began producing point-of-view documentaries by a number of talented filmmakers and established InformAction’s reputation as a strong promoter of auteur documentaries. InformAction also became involved in the production of several works by emerging filmmakers, with the support of SODEC’s Jeunes Créateurs program.
