Films catalogue

Lumen

Stéphanie Bélanger / 2024 / 13 min. / Canada / FRENCH / Canada

Synopsis

It has been raining heavily for months and the sixth wave is depressing humanity. In this prevailing darkness, Claude, 70 years old, compulsively buys lamps online to break his solitude and bring light into his life, at any cost.

Cast & Crew

  • Screenplay : Stéphanie Bélanger
  • Cinematographer : Yannick Nolin
  • Editor : Emmanuelle Lane
  • Sound : René Portillo
  • Sound mix : Daniel Toussaint
  • Sound editor : Daniel Toussaint & Félixe Sturk Lussier
  • Music : Pierre-Philippe Côté
  • Artistic director : Yza Nouiga & Ribo
  • Cast : Carmen Sylvestre, Caroline Bélanger & Benoît Arcand

Genre

Fiction

Topics

Culture and society, Quebec, Elderly

Biography

After immersing herself in the Parisian audiovisual industry for a decade, Stéphanie has returned to her Quebecois roots to pursue a comprehensive screenwriting education at L'inis. With an enduring passion for words, she adeptly traverses the spectrum from absurd humour to gripping drama, deftly manipulating the intricacies of the human experience and drawing forth its beauty from within its vulnerabilities. Amidst a diverse array of audiovisual and literary projects, she makes her directorial debut with 'Lumen,' a pandemic-inspired endeavour that delves into the solitary enclave of a tech-savvy septuagenarian, tethered to her computer as if it were a lifeline.

Festivals

- 2024 - 

Palm Springs Short Film Festival, USA
Nevada City Film Festival, USA
NewFilmmakers Los Angeles (NFMLA), USA
Fantasia, Montréal - Canada
Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival, Leicester, USA
Minikino Film Week, Bali, Indonésie
Edmonton International Film Festival, Edmonton, Canada
Bolton International Film Festival, Manchester, UK
San Jose International Short Film Festival, San Jose, USA
Chicago International Film Festival, Chicago, USA
Spasm, Montréal, Canada | Prix de la meilleure direction photo
Cinémental, Winnipeg, Canada | Prix du public & Prix du jury
Yellowknife int. film festival, Yellowknife, Canada
Shorts Not Pants, Toronto, Canada
Festival international du cinéma francophone en Acadie (FICFA), Moncton, Canada

Director's statement

This project was born in the depths of November 2020, when humanity was discovering the joys of a global pandemic and mandatory lockdown. With a hint of embarrassment, I must confess that the story of "Lumen" is somewhat mine, having been a nearly compulsive buyer of lamps to light up my small apartment, having been outbid by someone else for a lampshade, and having been genuinely upset about it. "My poor girl, if you're getting worked up over a lamp, it's a sign that not much is happening in your life." The absurdity of the situation was such that, with a bit of hindsight, I thought it was a great starting point for a short film: talking about isolation, the surrounding grayness, and irrationality, from living within silent walls and searching for a breath of fresh air that never comes. All this, by summoning light in its most mundane form and setting the story from the perspective of an elderly person, as there are unfortunately too many for whom television or the computer is the only companion in their confined solitude. This is how the "not much" in my life turned into a series of beautiful opportunities and little stars that aligned on my path, allowing me to make this first short film, with the precious help of Rocio Barba Fuentes and Giacomo Nudi from Cosmos Films, who masterfully managed the shooting and post-production, thanks to the support of Spira's La Collaboration program, the CALQ, Post-moderne, and Studiole Nid (Pierre-PhilippeCôté).

Photos

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