While waiting for Christopher Nolan to appear on the red carpet at SBIFF 2011, I stood with my buddy Ted Mills, fellow filmmaker/journalist, and we
interviewed newcomer filmmakers as they made their way down the red carpet. Ted and I interviewed the four Quebec directors of the feature film, Blind Spot (2009), FABRICE BARRILLIET, NICOLAS BOLDUC, JULIEN KNAFO and MARIE HÉLÈNE PANISSET.

We had just met and spoken with the directors at a previous gathering, hence the jovial familiarity.

ME: (after the surprise of the filmmakers to see us on the press side of the red carpet) You haven't seen people doing journalism and filmmaking? LOL!

TED: (after Fabrice handed him a postcard of the film) I see. This film looks really really familiar. I got the card!

FABRICE: Yes, this is our card.

TED: And you are?

NICOLAS: I'm Nicolas.

TED: Well, we didn't really get to talk about the structure of the film so is every four section like a different story or are they all sort of mixed together?

NICOLAS: Not at all.

FABRICE: No, they're all sort of mixed together. It's very organic. Very organic.

TED: Now, did all of you like sit down beforehand and figure out, 'now we're all gonna have a style to sort of match up' or... how did you work out this equation?

FABRICE: Actually, it's an idea of Nicolas because we were working on the script with the owner of the play and we were doing four different movies and he came one day and said, ‘well, why don't we just mix everything and do an organic movie?'

NICOLAS: Ca c'est croiser... mix the stories together and have them meet each other, and sort of, like in real life you know, not to separate the whole thing and create one single film. You know, the sort of ensemble piece has been said and done already in the past in different films in small vignettes it's been done so we wanted to do something completely different and it was flawless.

TED: Now did you share like a cinematographer and editor.

FABRICE: Well, actually, he did all the cinematography.

NICOLAS: There was one cinematographer and one editor. And the rest is pretty much us. So we produced the film and Juliette did the music so we all sort of pitched in and we all did two jobs.

TED: Now, I mean, when one director has one film you see that as a director's personal vision. Would you say then that you have four personal visions that all match up together? Or do they clash in certain ways?

NICOLAS: I don't believe they clash very much. I think the whole idea of the process was to make nothing clash at all and to make the whole thing so tightly fitted so that nobody would know there are four directors actually shooting this picture. Most people actually thought there was one director. People didn't know. They had to ask the question, ‘How...why did you do that?'

FABRICE: We tried to forget ourselves, our signature, for the movie. We tried to put every forces that we have in the movie.

TED: Now were you aware of each other's styles before this?

NICOLAS: We've worked together for the past 12-13 years.

TED: Oh, okay. Thirteen years! This is sort of a high fine, like, everyone get together, seamless in a good way.

FABRICE: It's like a gang bang.

TED: (laughs) Ok...getting personal. Lol!

ME: Film gang bang! A new genre! Does that go along with the 'organic' filmmaking you were talking about earlier?

ALL: (laugh)

FABRICE: Yes, an organic gang bang!

ME: Oh good, that was my next question. What do you mean by 'organic'?

FABRICE: (laughing) Yes, organic. You should try it. It's great.

NICOLAS: Free range. Hide the camera.

ME: Coming up with new genres all the time!

TED: Okay, well, when does the film show?

NICOLAS/FABRICE: Monday.

TED: Alright. Thank you guys.

Be sure to see this cutting edge film, Blind Spot (2011) by these four daring, funny and organically creative film gang bangers from Quebec!

Interview transcribed by Vanessa McMahon on Feb 05, 2011

Read this in depth article to find out more about 'Blind Spot':

http://www.luciditepassagere.com/index.php?page=4&version=EN

FABRICE BARRILLIET and Ted Mills

FABRICE BARRILLIET

FABRICE BARRILLIET and NICOLAS BOLDUC

MARIE HÉLÈNE PANISSET