For immediate release, May 26th 2003
The Festival en chanson de Petite-Vallée (Québec, Canada) – the Petite-Vallée song festival – is much more than just a contest. It is a place where people who know the great and simple joy of singing share and pass on their knowledge. This enjoyment has been handed down for generations and, over the years, has become a force driving the cultural, social and economic development of the village. Only the sea has ever interrupted this tradition, and even the sea couldn’t stop it for long.
Singing to Drown Out the Sea, a documentary produced by Guylaine Maroist and Éric Ruel, goes directly to the heart of a story as genuine as the people who tell it. The film gives a glowing vision of the beauty of this place, going right back to the root of the tradition and exploring how it developed. It focuses on the people of the village, the organizers, the young contestants and the established artists who come to contribute. Michel Rivard, Daniel Boucher, Marie-Claire Séguin, Louise Forestier and Richard Séguin all bear witness in their own ways to the special relationship that the village maintains with song. “You explore the essence of singing and song,” says Richard Séguin. Michel Rivard believes that the festival returns to the basic principle that singing is supposed to bring people together. According to Daniel Boucher, “When I got here, something clicked.”
Singing to Drown Out the Sea looks at both the past and the future, as well as the present. With an astounding sense of rhythm, light and musicality, it portrays the continuity between the family history of the LeBreux family, “purveyor of music”, and the transmission of the act of singing. With valuable assistance from director of photography Jean-François Perreault, producer-directors Guylaine Maroist and Éric Ruel have told their story rather like inspired composers, stimulated by the chance to set an exciting text to music.
Singing to Drown Out the Sea was born from a impulse of the heart. The producers leaped into the project with few resources but large quantities of energy and passion. Along the way, they acquired supporters who helped make it possible for them to set their dreams on film. We wish to acknowledge, among others, the valuable support of Radio-Canada television and the National Film Board of Canada.
Singing to Drown Out the sea? It’s all a question of breathing, and this 52-minute documentary explores the breath of history.
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Source: Alain Chartrand
Media Contact: Caroline Pelletier
Phone: 514.253.3024
