Barbiers: Une histoire d'hommes
"Barbers - A Men's Story" takes us into barbershops, a haven where men can talk freely among themselves. The film features barbers who describe their love and passion for their work. These endearing and dedicated men, who have been their customers' trusted confidants for decades, are approaching the twilight of their careers in a trade that is slowly dying out.
Claude Demers
Director
Also Directed by Claude Demers
During a heat wave in Montreal, Tom, 11, meets Édith, who’s the same age. He soon discovers that Édith has a terrible secret.
A CHILDHOOD. A NEIGHBORHOOD. AN ODE TO LIFE One-of-a-kind autobiography narrated and filmed with great sensibility and beauty. Its exceptional cinematic quality offers a visual treat to a Quebec rarely seen before. This poetic take on childhood memory transcends simple nostalgia for a sincere celebration of life. Claude Demers returns to the working-class district of Montréal where he grew up, and immediately wonders: Why? The rest of Where I'm From forms the answer. Demers tries to relive all the experiences he had for the first time as a child, or at least understand them: the first novel he read and the power of language. His first awareness of death. The question of what is normal and what isn’t. The idea of wanting to leave, of having to leave.
Somewhere in Montreal, Antoine (David La Haye) toils as a struggling writer. The end of his relationship with Matina (Irene Stamou) causes him to work obsessively on his new novel, and also makes it difficult for him to interact with the opposite sex. One day while moping over Matina, Antoine is hit by a car driven by Charlotte (Pascale Montpetit), a married mother of two and the manager of a hip boutique. Despite their differences, an attraction quickly develops between Charlotte and Antoine, and they soon add Elisabeth (Delphine Brodeur), a brainy and beautiful teenaged prostitute, to their sticky couplings. Meanwhile, Charlotte's husband Joey (Andreas Apergis) sits at home and watches dispassionately as his wife abandons him and their kids for epic nights of passion.
Filmmaker Claude Demers tells the story of his search for his biological mother and their eventual meeting. He does this in voice-over, accompanied by images from Canada's national archives. The painstakingly selected and fluidly edited black-and-white clips build up, like the perfectly fitting pieces of a puzzle; an impression of his mother as he had imagined her. How she grew up, worked, loved and left him.
