Phantoms of the French Shore
Sunday 16 September 2012
Fishing for the Future Film Festival Selects Phantoms of the French Shore
Phantoms of the French Shore screens at the Fishing for the Future Film Festival in Norris Point Newfoundland 2pm Saturday Sept. 29th at the Bonne Bay Marine Station.
Tuesday 21 August 2012
Atlantic Film Festival Selects Phantoms of the French Shore
The history of French settlement in Newfoundland as told in 200 feet of hand stitched tapestry.
Phantoms of the French Shore
2pm Saturday September 15th at the Park Lane Theatre, Halifax Nova Scotia
Tuesday 31 July 2012
Thursday 26 July 2012
Will and Renee
By: Will Cyr
Film Editor
What struck me most about Jean-Claude as I was
cutting the documentary was his tenacity. When he sets out to fulfill Picasso’s
idea of one not being a true artist until one has painted 10 000 tableaux, you
can’t help but admire his devotion.
I found the undertaking that Jean-Claude and
Christina took-on astonishing. Even though he is not a Newfoundland native, we
can sense Jean-Claude’s great love of the region; for anybody who choses to
invest such time and care to sharing and immortalizing this community’s history
must have a great devotion to it.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
By: Renée de Sousa
Production Assistant and Translator
Francophone communities living outside of Quebec often live
isolated from one another. We are often ignorant of the history and culture of
other province’s francophone communities. I found it fascinating to follow the
path of a people, and understand how specific events drastically changed the
fabric of Newfoundland.
Working on this documentary made me curious to learn about other
Canadian francophone communities. It is so interesting to see how francophone
minorities throughout the country have managed to survive and thrive after hundreds
of years.
We may be scattered
throughout the country, but we are united by language. Our specific stories
differ, but we share similar experiences and have faced familiar challenges. To
understand and appreciate that can only make us stronger.
Friday 13 July 2012
The Making of: Phantoms of the French Shore
Fabric used to stitch the tapestry. |
The stitching begins. |
Embroiders get to work. |
Cinematographer Mark Ellam and Sound Recordist Scott Yates at work in Conche Newfoundland. |
Director Barbara Doran and Cinematographer Mark Ellam and Scott Yates in Conche Newfoundland. |
French Naval officers honour their country's former sailors in Conche Newfoundland |
The long work finally comes to life. |
Artist Jean-Claude celebrates the launch of the tapestry in St. John's Newfoundland. |
Christina Roy |
Friday 6 July 2012
A Story within Stories
By Terence Mbulaheni
Phantoms of the
French Shores
is a documentary that contains many stories within a single narrative. This
multilayered epic creates a mosaic guaranteed to entertain. It depicts historical events, celebrates
communities, and retells a 400 year history of conquest and culture. Symbolic
meanings are weaved into the film and tapestry alike, creating parallel
relationships between historical characters depicted in the artwork, the
embroiders and the artist. The stories below are just two of those woven into
the tapestry and the film.
STORY 1: The French Shore: the portrayal of a long history of British and French
negotiations that resulted in France giving up its fishing rights on the French
Shore of Newfoundland. This was a subject that appeared to Jean-Claude Roy as a
card game in which the colonies and fishing rights were merely poker chips, and
the players were only interested in what they could gain for themselves.
Inspired by the French impressionist artist
Cezanne, Roy puts the diplomats at a card table, and shows both their apparent
correctness and their dishonesty - one man pockets a card, while another lets
the French Shore drop carelessly to the floor.
STORY 2: A story of parachutes: WW2 airmen crash in front of
the school in Conche in 1942, frightening some of the children who think the
airmen are Germans. The smaller image, taken from the border of the Tapestry,
shows an event that occurred during the winter of 1943. Ranger John Hogan, a
member of the Newfoundland Ranger Force, parachutes along with another man from
their Royal Canadian Air Force plane. Hogan was unharmed, while his colleague
was unable to walk.
For 53 freezing winter days, Hogan cared for his injured
colleague, providing food by trapping rabbits and gathering berries beneath the
snow, until they were rescued. The larger story here is World War II: the
device of the parachute is used to tell how the war was brought home to the
people of the French Shore.
Wednesday 27 June 2012
It was an Amazing Experience
By: Terence Mbulaheni
Joan
Simmonds is the Director of the
French Shore Historical Society in Conche Newfoundland and the Project
Director
for the French Shore Tapestry Project. She’s very active in Conche,
beginning her career as a catalyst in the community volunteering
at age 13, selling tickets for the local parish committee.
As Director of the Tapestry Project, she raised the funds necessary for the embroidery work to be carried out. Working tirelessly, she managed a team of more than a dozen people through out the three-year project, supervising the hiring and training of a dozen artistic embroiders from
the community, as well as arranging the space for the work to be carried out.
As Director of the Tapestry Project, she raised the funds necessary for the embroidery work to be carried out. Working tirelessly, she managed a team of more than a dozen people through out the three-year project, supervising the hiring and training of a dozen artistic embroiders from
the community, as well as arranging the space for the work to be carried out.
Joan and embroiders |
Joan says, "Any community has to depend on volunteers. You have to take care of your environment and it will take care of you". The Newfoundland government recently honoured Joan as one of volunteers in the province who contribute over 35 million hours a year of valuable unpaid time to their communities and local organizations.
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