Pierre Hébert

PIERRE HÉBERT

(filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist)

CURRICULUM VITAE

Born in Montreal, January 19, 1944.

Classical course, externat classique St-Viateur (1955-1962)

Bsc anthropology, University of Montreal (1962-1965)

Employed by the National Film Board of Canada as animation film director (1965 à 1999) Producer and studio director from 1997 to 1999. Independent artist since 2000. President of la Cinémathèque Québécoise (1993-1995) Teaching : Montreal School of Fine Arts (1968), Laval University (1974-1978), University of Montreal (1975-1978)

Adresse : PO Box 492, Hemmingford (Québec) J0L 1H0 Canada

e-mail: ph@pierrehebert.com

Main awards

2004 Albert Tessier award (Government of Québec award for cinéma) ; for La Plante humaine, Prix Sodec-Aqcc for the best Quebec feature1996, prix cinéma de l’Office des communications sociales 1997 et special price of the jury at The International Festival of Budrun, Turkey - Melkweg Cinema Award for Reality Research, Amsterdam, 1985; prix Héritage McLaren 1988 - Bessy Award 1987 (NewYork Dance and Performance Award) for the films in Technology of Tears - Prix Aqec-Olivieri 1993 for the best theoretical article on cinema - Prix Aqcc 1985 for the best Quebec short of the year for Songs and Dances of the inanimate world – The Subway.

Main films

Herqueville, (2007, 21:40 min.) The Statue of Giordano Bruno (2005, 12:09 min.), The Technology of Tears (2005, 13:56 min.), Variations on two Photographs by Tina Modotti (2005, 40 min.), Between Science and Garbage (2004, 50 min.), La Plante humaine (1996, 78min.), La Lettre d’amour (1988, 16 min.), Adieu bipède (1987, 16 min.), O Picasso – tableaux d’une surexposition (1986, 20 min.), Songs and Dances of the inanimate world – The Subway (1986, 14 min.), Étienne et Sara (1984, 15 min.), Memories of War (1982, 16 min.), Entre chiens et loup (1978, 22 min.), Santa Claus is coming tonight (1974, 12 min.), Around Perception (1968, 16 min.), Opus 3 (1967, 7 min.), Op Hop (1965, 3 min.), Opus 1 (1964, 3 min.).

Living Cinema

Multimedia performance - Pierre Hébert/Bob Ostertag (2008) Soundplay Festival at the Theater Centre, Toronto; Other arts at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas USA; Buenos Aires Festival Internacional of Cine Independiente, 9 julio theater, Argentina; Roulette/HarvestWorks, New York; (2007) Irtijal, Beirut; San Francisco International Film Festival, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; (2006) Transart Festival, Bolzano, Italy; Guelph Jazz Festival; Modave Performance Center, University of California; (2005) IX encontros de cinema, Cineclube de Faro, Portugal; Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf; Open Ear Festival, Kitchener, Canada; Red Cat Theater, Los Angeles; High Performance Rodeo, Calgary; Sensoralia Festival, Rome; ZO Culture, Catania, Italie; (2004) Casares, Spain; Argos Festival, Brussels; The Evergreen State College, Wash. USA.; New Forms Festival (The Western Front New Music), Vancouver; Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco ; Vasistas, Théâtre de La Chapelle, Montréal; Mois Multi, Méduse, Québec; University of California; (2003) Festival CinémaS d’Europe; Area Sismica, Meldola, Italie; Yamaha Avenue Hall, Sapporo ; Aichi Art Center, Nagoya ; Red Brick Wharehouse, Osaka ; Star Pine’s Cafe, Tokyo ; Centro de las Artes, Monterrey, Mexico ; Vooruit, Gand ; Film Kunst Museum, Ulm ; Galerie E-M Arts, Naples ; Cinémathèque de Slovénie, Ljubljana ; ICA, Londres ; National Review of Live Art, Glasgow ; Sons d’hiver, Paris ; Rotterdam International Film Festival, Groningen ; Merkin Hall, New York ; (2002) Steim, Amsterdam, Vooruit, Gand ; Nickelsdorf. Autriche ; FIMAV, Victoriaville ; (2001) FCMM, Montréal ; Walker Art Center, Mineapolis ; Tournée européenne (Italie, Slovanie, Autriche, Pologne, Allemagne) ; Electronic Music Festival, San Francisco ; Festival Images, Toronto.

Live scratched animation performances

Breathless Machines Solo performance - conference/performance on animation engraved on film, FilmStudio, Rome; Hallwalls, Buffalo; Maison du livre de l’image et du son, Villeurbane (Lyon); CEGEP de Saint-Laurent; Sonora University, Hermosillo, Mexico; Café-théâtre La Vieille Grille, Paris; Tele Ciencia, Universidade de Tras-os-montes e alto Douro and Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal; Holland animation Festival, Utrecht; Cinémathèque Québécoise, Montreal; Student Animation Festival, Ottawa; Fantoche festival, Baden, Suitzerland. Improvisation with bassplayer Carlos Bica, Teatro Rivoli, Porto 2001 - Fleuve, by Éric Gagnon, Galery Axe Néo 7, Hull, 2000 - Musée de la Civilisation, Quebec, 2001 – Le mois Multi, Méduse, Quebec, 2001 – Vasistas, Théâtre de La chapelle, Montreal, Feb. 2001 – Théâtre de la Verdure, Montreal, 2001 ; Piano and cinema with Guillaume Dostaler, Calgary, Ottawa and Montréal, 2000 ; Improvisation with Andrea Martignoni, Milano, 2000 ; Improvisation –3 with Bob Ostertag, Sonic Act, Amsterdam, 1997 ; Le combat avec l’ange with Denise Boulanger, Agora de la Danse, 1994 ; Improvisation with David Borden, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA, 1993 ; I think we should (burn the damned thing down) with Bob Ostertag, tour in Austria and Germany, 1991 ; Sooner or later with Bob Ostertag, Taktlos festival, Suitzerland, 1991, and San Francisco, 1990 ; La Plante humaine with Robert Marcel Lepage, Montreal et other cities in Canada and abroad, 1990-91 ; Improvisation with Fred Frith, Musée d’Art contemporain, Montreal, et Glasgow Jazz Festival, Scotland, 1989 ; Adieu Leonardo with Jean Derome, Robert Marcel Lepage and René Lussier, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1987, DuMaurier Theatre, Toronto and tour in the Nerderlands; Conversation with Louise Bédard, Robert Marcel Lepage and Sylvie Massicotte, Obscure, Quebec and Optica Galery in Montreal, 1987.

Musical shows

Glaces , 2008, with Pierre Duchesne, Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois; (solo version) IOProject, Macchiagodena, Italy; Only the hand… (Seule la main…), solo performance with music by Stefan Smulovitz, 2008, ZO Culture, Catania, Italy; IOProject, Macchiagodena, Italy; Saguenay International Short Film Festival; 2007, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver; Toronto International French Short Films Festival; Université St-Joseph, Beirut; Cinémathèque Québécoise; Filature, a sound theater by Joane Hétu, 2007, FIMAV, Victoriaville, 2006, Usine C, Montreal, 2006. Entre basura y ciencia with Bob Ostertag et Baltasar Lopez, Yerba Buena Center for The Arts, San Francisco, 2000 - Spiral by Bob Ostertag, San Francisco 1996 - In Memory by Fred Frith, New Music America, BAM, New York, 1989 - Mutation by Michel Lemieux, Montréal, 1988 - Confitures de Gagaku by Jean Derome, Montreal, 1986 - La symphonie interminable with Jean Derome, Robert Marcel Lepage and René Lussier,1984.

Scenographic films for dance

Elles, choreography by Louise Bédard, Théâtre de La Chapelle, Montreal, 2002 - Ville invisible choregraphy by Jean-Marc Matos, Centre national art et technologie, Reims, France, 1991 - Braise Blanche choregraphy by Louise Bédard, National art Center, Ottawa, 1991 - The Technology of Tears, choregraphy by Rosalind Newman, Joyce Theater, New York, 1987 - Timber, choregraphy by Ginette Laurin, Montreal, 1986.

Main publications and conferences

Cinema and Animated Cinema at the Digital Age, Colloquium «Mondialisation du goût et identités culturelles», Institut national d'histoire de l'art, june 16-17, Paris; El angel y el automata (spanish translation of L'ange et l'automate), BAFICI, Buenos Aires, 2008 - Un instant de lumière à Minneapolis (A moment of light in Minneapolis) in Conjonctures, no 43 Winter 2007 - Conférence sur le projet Living Cinema (conference on Living Cinema) Computational Poetics Gathering, Simon Frazer University, Vancouver, May 17-19 - Les trois âges de la rotoscopie (The three ages of rotoscopy), in Quand le cinéma d’animation rencontre le vivant, Les 400 coups cinéma 2006, Corps, langages, technologie, (Body, language, technology) collection of short essays, Les 400 coups, Montreal, 2006 - William Kentridge et le monde des ombres (William Kentridge and the world of shadows), 24 images, no 125, Dec.. 2005-Jan.. 2006 - Animation in the era of digital cinema, 20 proposals for a poetic of the moving images, opening conference of the 9th encounters of cinema, Cineclube de Faro, Dec. 9 -1, Faro, Portugal - Animation and other arts, an unanswered question, Symposium on animation and other arts, Casa da animacao, Porto, Portugal, Nov. 2001, published in 2006 in The Sharpest Point animation at the end of cinemaYYZ Books, Toronto - Highly personnal reflections on the state of animation catalogue of the Holland Animation Festival 2000, Utrecht, Nederlands - L’Ange et l’automate (The Angel and the Automaton) essay, Les 400 coups, Montreal, 1999 - Corps, Langage, Technologie (Body, Language and Technology) (colloque Manière de travailler, Parachute et Atelier psychanalytique, Montreal, 1999), La Gravure sur pellicule, une approche personnelle (Scratching on film – a Personnal Aproach) conference at the Festival International du Film d’Animation, Annecy, France, 1997 - La métaphore de « l’autre discipline» ou le paradis perdu du sens (The metaphore of the «other discipline» or the lost paradise of meaning) colloque Autres Pas, La danse, recherche et fabrication du sens, dance dep. of UQAM, 1994 - Égarement volontaire (Willingly misled) in Les Vendredis du corps, le corps en scène, vision plurielle, Cahier de Théâtre Jeu/FIND, 1993 - Musicalité ou Oralité ? Réflexion d’un cinéaste qui voulait «faire comme un musicien» (Music or speech – Reflections of a Filmaker who wanted to act like a Musician) (in Cinémas vol.3 No1, 1992 - Le cinéma d’animation : entre la nostalgie du dessin et le désir de la danse (Animation Cinema : Between the nostalgia of Drawing and the Desire of Dance) in Esquisses psychanalytiques, no 17. Paris, 1992 - et other texts published in Canadian or French magazines.

Retrospectives

Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente, Buenos Aires, Argentine, 2008 (complete retrospective), Holland Animation Festival Utrecht, Nederland, 2000 - Cinémathèque Québécoise, Montreal 2000 (complete retrospective) and 1982 - Fantoche Festival, Baden, Suisse, 1999 - Festival international du film d’animation Annecy, France, 1997 - Cinémas du Canada Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1993 - Ottawa International Animation Festival 1988 - Festival du cinéma québécois Liège, Charleroi et Bruxelles, Belgium, 1986 - Melkweg Cinema Amsterdam, 1985 - Canadian Cultural Center Paris, 1983 - Biennale de Paris, Paris, 1967.