Jutra

With an ingenious assembly of archival footage and animated sequences, Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre brings us a clever and astute cinephile portrait of Claude Jutra, the director of Mon oncle Antoine.

Continuing the undertaking she began in 2006 with McLaren's Negatives, devoted to Norman McLaren, Saint-Pierre has refined her pursuit of a unique animated documentary form, boldly and skilfully encapsulating the life and career of another cinema giant.

Through the magic of editing and animation, Claude Jutra is seen in dialogue with himself at various stages of his life – becoming the spirited narrator of his own biography. Excerpts from family films, interviews, and clips from some of Jutra's well-known works are seamlessly intertwined with these sequences, forming a portrait of a man whose life was devoted to creativity. Jutra is simultaneously a homage, a love letter to cinema, and the dramatic story of a brilliant artist whose life was all-too-short.