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Permeating the daily life of one of the great congolese orchestras of the current generation, “Rumba Rules“proposes an incursion into the arcanes of a monumental African music.Ya Mayi, Lumumba, Xéna La Guerrière, Pitchou Travolta, Alfred Solo, Soleil Patron and many others: nearly thirty artists feed the creative life of the Brigade Sarbati Orchestra. By entering the group and the city of Kinshasa, the film gets into the rumba as if it were penetrating a rootstock. Through studio work, rehearsals and concerts, different portraits offer a foray into the dynamics and stories of this highly acclaimed Congolese music. From local roots to the patrons from the diaspora, the voices of Rumba Rules polyphony are past and present.

featuring BRIGADE SARBATI ORCHESTRA a film by DAVID N. BERNATCHEZ SAMMY BALOJI with the contribution of KIRIPI KATEMBO-SIKU images DAVID N. BERNATCHEZ KIRIPI KATEMBO SIKU SAMMY BALOJI additionnal images NELSON MAKENGO sound DAVID N. BERNATCHEZ DOLET MALALU SERGE MAKOBO editing DAVID N. BERNATCHEZ editing advisers MICHEL GIROUX SYLVAIN L’ESPERANCE CHRISTELLE BERRY sound editing SIMON GERVAIS color grading MILÉNA TRIVIER mix ALEXIS PILON-GLADU producers ROSA SPALIVIERO DAVID N. BERNATCHEZ associate producers CARLO LECHEA KIRIPI KATEMBO-SIKU executive production PAYSDENVIE TWENTY NINE STUDIO PRODUCTION associate production MUTOTU IDEA coproduction Mu.ZEE (OSTENDE) FESTIVAL D’AUTOMNE À PARIS with the support of CONSEIL DES ARTS ET DES LETTRES DU QUÉBEC FONDS DE RECHERCHE DU QUÉBEC SUR LA SOCIÉTÉ ET LA CULTURE PRODUCTIONS RÉALISATIONS INDÉPENDANTES DE MONTRÉAL SPIRA

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Ludovica is a web project of ideas, archives, writings and audio-visions. Inspired by Quebec, a city as modest in demographics as it is rich in history and perspectives, the project offers a kind of free distillery. People and places, memories and artifacts, utopias and dystopias macerate there in fragments. Grouped around 5 main axes, set in motion by various encounters and resonances of four musical collectives, these fragments are articulated as possible journeys. Only available in french.

music bands EP4 PERCUSSIONS VIOLONS DU ROY LA FÊTE ORCHESTRE D’HOMMES-ORCHESTRES research, writings, direction DAVID N. BERNATCHEZ research, writings RÉJEAN LEMOINE coordination, research VALÉRIANE COSSETTE video editing and colors MARCO DUBÉ drawings HÉLÈNE MATTE infographie MARYLIN DUFOUR web embedding FRÉDÉRIC GUIMONT realized with the help of ARCHIVES DE LA VILLE DE QUÉBEC CONSEIL DES ARTS ET DES LETTRES DU QUÉBEC SPIRA TELE-QUEBEC

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This immersive installation offers a foray into the world of Congolese rumba. Restoring a few moments of an “acoustic” rehearsal of the Sarbati Hercules Brigade Orchestra, Rumba Spaces bring us in front of certain spaces of Kinshasa, an African megalopolis.

featuring BRIGADE SARBATI’S ORCHESTRA images SAMMY BALOJI DAVID N. BERNATCHEZ boom operator DOLET MALALU editing DAVID N. BERNATCHEZ sound mix and mastering ERIC PFALZGRAF color correction JOSJA VAN ZADELHOFF associate producer CARLO LECHEA production managers SERGE MAKOBO ROBERTO NYEMBO executive production TWENTY NINE STUDIO & PRODUCTION PAYSDENVIE with the support of KUNSTHAUS GRAZ KUNSTHALLE TUBINGEN

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Little stories are those of grounded memories. Through the city no man’s land, in the shade of lights, in the silence of the archives: they are alive. This is an exquisite corpse of some of them, collectively made and performed with l’Orchestre d’hommes-orchestres.

music and text fragments ORCHESTRE D’HOMMES ORCHESTRES directed dy DAVID N. BERNATCHEZ images FRANÇOIS GAMACHE grip VINCENT DESCHÊNES editing MARCO DUBÉ sound NORMAND LAPIERRE sound editing HAFID EGOULI production manager ANNIE AUDET produced for FABRIQUE CULTURELLE with the support of SPIRAFILM CONSEIL DES ARTS ET DES LETTRES DU QUÉBEC TELE-QUEBEC

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Max Gros-Louis has been the chief of the Huron-wendat nation for over thirty years. Fighting for Native rights and culture all around the world, he has been very involved in his own community of Wendake. Now in his eighties, he recalls some of his memories.

featuring MAX GROS-LOUIS directed by DAVID N. BERNATCHEZ images LARRY ROCHEFORT sound MICHAEL PINEAULT editing DAVID N. BERNATCHEZ music EP4 PERCUSSIONS RAPHAEL GUAY sound editing HAFID EGOULI production manager CATHERINE BERNIER produced with the support of SPIRAFILM CONSEIL DES ARTS ET DES LETTRES DU QUÉBEC TELE-QUEBEC produced for LA FABRIQUE CULTURELLE

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Jacques is 59. Seller by profession, he has been working in Quebec city all his life. Between fall and spring, the last months have been particularly difficult. Bereaved of his wife, he is slow to recover. Change of life? Shed of skin? The political context might confuse situations, but the narrator insists : Jacques can still hope.

featuring RÉAL LATREILLE LAURETTE PARADIS DENIS GRAVEL ALEXANDRA DOUCET LISE DEMERS directed by DAVID N. BERNATCHEZ images FRANÇOIS GAMACHE photos ÉMILIE BAILLARGEON sound NORMAND LAPIERRE PIERRE BOUCHARD editing DAVID N. BERNATCHEZ sound editing ERIC PFALZGRAF SIMON GERVAIS music LOUIS-SIMON LEMIEUX mix JEAN-PAUL VIALARD acic coordonator MARIE-CHRISTINE GUITÉ executive producer ELIAS DJEMIL produced by OCTO FILM PAYSDENVIE with the support from CONSEIL DES ARTS ET LETTRES DU QUÉBEC SPIRA SOCIÉTÉ DE DÉVELOPPEMENT DES ENTREPRISES CULTURELLES DU QUÉBEC AIDE AU CINEMA INDEPENDANT DU CANADA Distribution SPIRA

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Solo Kinshasa is a series of twelve video chronicles about Congolese urban music in its relations to the every day life and history. Made of interviews, performances, recordings and archival footage, it offers incursions through the different musical “genres” and cultures of the DR. Congo. Kinshasa, African megacity and future capital of the Francophonie, is revealed through its praying and distortions, in the complexity of its pride; it tells itself in words, performances and memories. Conducted between 2004 and 2013, gathered in three thematic volumes, the Solo Kinshasa chronicles invites to an anthropological immersion, both aesthetic and cognitive, in the heart of music and life.

Solo Kinshasa series is not released yet.

featuring PERE ALFONS MUELLER VIEUX JOMOS DIDIER MASELA GODE LOFOMBO ANGELA SAMBARO LAURENT KADOGO CONTREBASSE FÉLIX WAZEKWA SOLANGE MILEMBA KAMBA PAPY MBOMA FRÈRE PATRICE NGOY MUSOKO ILLUNGA MWANA BUTE SAINT-MICHEL PARISH SINGERS ORCHESTRE NOUVELLE ÉCRITA BANA LUPEMBA BANA SIMBA WENGE MUSICIANS AND FANS camera, research, editing DAVID N. BERNATCHEZ research assistant, production manger SERGE MAKOBO with the participation of CONSEIL DE RECHERCHE EN SCIENCES HUMAINES DU CANADA CHAIRE DE RECHERCHE EN HISTOIRE COMPARÉE DE LA MÉMOIRE CENTRE D’ÉTUDE SUR LES ARTS, LES LETTRES ET LES TRADITIONS PROGRAMME FRONTENAC CENTRE EN ÉTUDES AFRICAINES DE L’EHESS

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As it shapes at the end of the 19th century, history of baseball tells about the transformation of pastures and mentalities in North America. Slow and repetitive, the game gives pride to daydreaming and boasting. Full-bodied and mannered, it invokes the expanse of a new continent at the same time as it recalls its British origins. Filmed at the Victoria Stadium in Quebec and developed with the help of sports columnist Jean Dion, Temps morte wanders to better examine the state of baseball in French America: its particularities, its rules, its rites. The film only has a french version.

featuring CAPITALES DE QUÉBEC BASEBALL TEAM directed by DAVID N. BERNATCHEZ inspired by and with the writings of JEAN DION images FRÉDÉRICK PELLETIER DAVID N. BERNATCHEZ VINCENT DESCHÊNES sound GEORGES SHEEHY JEAN-FRANÇOIS DUGAS PIERRE LANTHIER editing DAVID N. BERNATCHEZ production helpers ALEXANDRE MINGARELLI JEAN-FRANÇOIS AUBÉ PÉÏRÉ BRUNNEMER music JASMIN CLOUTIER with the participation of FRÉDÉRICK CARRIER JEAN-PHILIPPE RENY sound editing MATHIEU CAMPAGNA color correction STUDIO ÉLÉMENT film produced with the support of SPIRAFILM CONSEIL DES ARTS ET DES LETTRES DU QUÉBEC distribution FILMS DU 3 MARS

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Originally practiced by the Bemba people of Zambia, appropriated by the youth of the Katanga province (Congo) for over thirty years, kalindula music is recognized primarily by the presence of an original string instrument. Marginal as well as complementary to the Christian practices that are raging throughout the city of Lubumbashi, it is during the nights of mourning that this “traditional”/ “tradi-modern” music is often performed. Focused on kalindula musicians and the mourning they use to accompany, this chronicle evokes the complex dynamics and the vitality of what is still called “tradition” in the urban lives of contemporary Congo.

featured orchestras BANA LUPEMBA BANA SIMBA images, sound, editing DAVID N. BERNATCHEZ additional images ANASTASE DIBWE inquiries, production manager JACKY KABEDI sound editing MATHIEU CAMPAGNA executive producer BOGUMIL KOSS-JEWSIEWICKI with the support of CHAIRE DU CANADA EN HISTOIRE COMPARÉE DE LA MÉMOIRE CENTRE D’ÉTUDE SUR LES LETTRES, LES ARTS ET LES TRADITIONS (U. LAVAL)

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The story of « Ilot Fleurie » is that of a little utopia from a popular district in Quebec City. It began in the mid-90s, when a huge wasteland and unsanitary prompted residents of the surrounding area to react. Abandoned, the land was taken over by horticulturalists and artists. In 2002, under the ramps of the Dufferin Montmorency Highway, a group of young artists and less young patenters continued to bring Ilot Fleurie to life. I made this film to pay tribute to all these artisans. Only available in french.

featuring LOUIS FORTIER HUGO CHOUINARD RÉJEAN LEMOINE directed by DAVID N. BERNATCHEZ testimony and images SERGE LESSARD narration, images, editing DAVID N. BERNATCHEZ music ENSEMBLE BRUNO PANACHE sound editing JACQUES FERLAND FÉLIX-ANTOINE BÉRUBÉ executive production ILOT FLEURIE

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