Holy Mountain! (Web Site)

Holy Mountain is an interactive documentary directed by photographer Gilbert Duclos and writer Hélène de Billy, designed by the Departement creation studio, and produced by the National Film Board of Canada’s Hugues Sweeney. Taking a highly original interactive “tour” of Mount Royal as its starting point, the work probes the spiritual bond between Montrealers and their mountain. For the directors, the symbolic sites and rituals they uncovered bear eloquent testimony to the persistence of the sacred in our secular society, so seemingly detached from religious dogma.

Poetic and sensitive, this “living work” is a love letter to Mount Royal, portrayed as a cultural catalyst of sorts – a gathering place for a vast array of identities and affiliations. Cameras and digital recorders in hand, de Billy and Duclos set off to meet the people of every creed and colour who love the mountain. And their subjects responded generously, giving themselves over to the encounter, sharing a meal, reciting a verse. Sacrée montagne, holy mountain…

The original Web design by Philippe Archontakis and Nicolas S. Roy features striking, incremental 3-D imagery that includes photographs and video clips, some of which present well-known Quebec personalities like Dany Laferrière, Nathalie Choquette, Marie Chouinard, Xavier Dolan and Josh Dolgin “SoCalled.” The interactive environment spans six familiar areas: the cemeteries, the Cross, St. Joseph’s Oratory, La Renommée (a.k.a. The Angel), Beaver Lake and Mount Royal’s trails.