After D’où je viens (RIDM 2014), which looked at his childhood neighbourhood, Claude Demers’ latest autobiographical film is a portrait of his bio-mother, who abandoned him at birth. How do you make a portrait of a mysterious woman who always refused to spill her secrets? Through a poetic, deeply sensitive montage blending fiction and documentary, archival footage and re-enactments, the filmmaker imagines the life his mother might have had, as a way to have a dialogue with her through cinema. An unforgettable love letter to a woman who rejected social norms to the point of rejecting her own child, Une femme, ma mère is the work of a true child of the movies, connecting the story of a woman to the history of Quebec by reclaiming her images.

Une femme, ma mère