Press Release: Catherine Chagnon of Microclimat Films, Selected Among The 25 Participants In The Banff International Media Festival's Diversity of Voices Initiative 2019

Words below are from the Press Release I was sent:

After completing her studies in theatrical production and scenography, Catherine Chagnon collaborated on several creations with Ex Machina and director Robert Lepage, touring internationally with the company for nine years. She then began working on independent film productions, combining her strengths in art directing and producing.

In 2008, Chagnon produced Danse Macabre by Pedro Pires. The critically acclaimed short film won the 2009 TIFF Best Canadian Short Film, Jutra and

Genie Awards. In 2009, she was the Line Producer and Production Designer of Hope, a short film based on the play Jimmy by Marie Brassard.

In 2010, Chagnon founded the Montreal-based production company, Microclimat Films. Focused on producing innovative projects, she is actively engaged in the cultural industry both locally and internationally. 

Chagnon has been involved in numerous productions and co-productions, including Deco Dawson’s award-winning short film Keep a Modest Head (TIFF 2012 Best Canadian Short Film, SIFF 2013 Best Short Documentary), Patrick Bossé’s short drama, Anatomy, co-produced in collaboration with the NFB, nominated for Best Short Fiction at the 2015 Jutra Awards, Dana Gingras’s short dance film Chainreaction (TIFF 2014 Short Cuts), Caroline Monnet’s short drama Roberta, nominated for Best Short Drama at the 2016 Canadian Screen Awards, and The Embargo Project commissioned by imagineNATIVE. 

She produced Frédérique Cournoyer Lessard’s debut documentary Rue de la Victoire that had its world premiere at the 2017 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in the official Canadian Spectrum Programme.

In 2018, Chagnon produced the multidisciplinary project of director and musician Kaveh Nabatian’s The Seven Last Words, a seven-part film to be presented during performances of Joseph Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ, interpreted by the Callino String Quartet, which is presented as a world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2019. Seven Canadian award-winning filmmakers (Ariane Lorrain, Sophie Goyette, Juan Andres Arango, Sophie Deraspe, Karl Lemieux and Caroline Monnet) each present a part exploring a diverse range of cinematic and emotional approaches. The project was selected for OMDC International Financing Forum 2015.

Chagnon is currently in production for Dana Gingras’s immersive dance film.

The vertiginous 36o-degree work with 34.5 surround sound, involving dancers, trampoline artists, Marie Brassard, and composer Roger Tellier Craig, will be

presented at the Satosphere in Montreal in April 2019. The project is selected for the 3rd edition of the Atelier Grand Nord RV 2019.

Chagnon is currently developing Caroline Monnet’s debut feature, Bootlegger, co-written by Daniel Watchorn, a Residence project of Cinéfondation 2016 and official selection of Festival de Cannes 2016. She participated in CineMart and Berlinale Co-Production Market 2016 and was selected for Boost NL 2016.

Chagnon is currently developing a sci-fi thriller, Le Train, the debut feature of the actress, theatre director, and writer Marie Brassard with the support of Telefilm Canada. Chagnon is also developing Where Shadows Walk, of the Mexican director Max Zunino, produced by Laura Imperiale of Cacerola Films.

Halmoni by Kimura Byol – Nathalie Lemoine and The Touch of Her Flesh by the director Mia Donovan.

Chagnon is an alumnus of TIFF Talent Lab 2011, Rotterdam Lab 2012, CineMart

2016 and Berlinale Co-Production Market 2016.