Why make puppet films?

I’ve always loved movies. I rented all the sci-fi movies from my video store before I was 12. I have a bachelor’s degree in cinema. I worked at an arthouse movie theater for almost 10 years.  I’ve published dozens of movie reviews.

When making a movie, a filmmaker is always part of a team. Even if we subscribe to the author’s theory, the fact remains that making cinema remains a collective work.

But what if you want to do it all on your own?

One man film crew

My vision of what an artist is has been influenced from my earliest childhood by my grandmother, the painter Mercédès Massé.

In short, when I think of an artist, I imagine a painter who transposes his or her personal vision of the world onto a canvas. One person. One vision. One artwork.

In puppet-o-scope

To make a movie on your own, you have to write it, shoot it and edit it. But you also have to play all the parts! How is it possible? With puppets, that’s how!

I’ve always loved movies and puppet shows like Fraggle Rock, The Muppets or Labyrinth. There’s a playfulness that reminds me of my grandmother’s naive art. And you can push the boundaries of this art form, like in Meet the Feebles or Team America.

Puppetry also lends itself well to making parody. It’s a genre that’s been mastered here in Canada. Just think of WolfCop, ManBorg, Turbo Kid, or the French Canadian TV series series Phylactère Cola and Le Coeur a ses raisons.

Now what?

For the last year, I’ve been sharing some of my work on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Reddit. I’ve also been working on a short film, Planet of the Socks, that is touring the festival circuit. It has already been selected to screen in Animovies Online! a shorts package presented by the Calgary Animated Objects Society CAOS as part in the The Festival of Animated Objects in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

It has also been picked up by the The Galactic Imaginarium Film Festival (TGIFF) in Dumbrăvița, Romania. TGIFF is a festival focused on science-fiction.

Stay tuned!

EN