The Montreal Film Festival is a great success!

The founder of the Festival des Films du Monde de Montréal, Serge Losique, undoubtedly has a passion for cinema. A former university professor (Concordia University), he is also the author of several achievements in this field both as a filmmaker than as educator and cultural organizer with FFM for 33 years. It is also one of the founders of the INIS and it is he who implanted the first courses in cinema at the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM).

Serge Losique do not want to think about to the quarrels surrounding the FFM and attempts to replace his event with another festival in 2005. He considers this kind of debate as normal in a democratic society. His thinking is based on an old proverb:"Friend, if you love me come to my home! "If not, well too bad ... The Montreal public loves to come at FFM.

Serge Losique consider as his greatest achievement to have inspired among Montrealers the love for film and have established Montreal reputation in this field worldwide. Personally, I always considered Serge Losique to be a kind of passionate warrior possessing an ardent desire to win while he, sees himself as a simple catalyst for ideas.

There is no doubt that the founder of the FFM is a brave man and above all, very persistent over the obstacles. One can easily compare its path to the one of Claude Robinson. These two artists of great talent were attacked by the establishment who were trying to take over the work of their lives.

Quebec as a whole approves the Justice decision granting a compensation to Claude Robinson and all congratulated him for his tenacity in the face of the injustice from executives of Cinar. The story of Serge Losique is no different except that its opponents were more numerous and even the media condemned him... The battle of Losique was however very short. Two years and the verdict was rendered contrary to 14 years of struggle by Claude Robinson. Yet the opponents of Serge Losique were more and not less. We found there all government agencies that fund the festivals in Canada, most major cultural leaders of Montreal as Alain Simard, Daniel Langlois and even Gilbert Rozon. The objective was clear: send Serge Logic to retirement!

Since that Losique would not abandon its Festival, the rebels decided to create a new festival, the International Film Festival of Montreal 2005. Despite government funding totaling $ 2 million, the failure was pathetic!

Like tennis, the impossible happened. The old champion has resisted to the favorites. The young opponents played very badly and they committed errors in the beginning leading to the defeat. Given their immense resources, they should have normally crushed veteran Losique. The patriarch of the FFM reacted as would have an Andre Agassi before a young pretentious opponent. He played his game and waited until his opponent made the false movements. Competitors against Serge Losique had everything to win but they did not play the game for which they had the tools. Their main mistake was to believe that the public would abandon the FFM to embrace a new festival which did not happened.

I had the opportunity to talk with Serge Losique about his path and his vision of cinema. I offer a summary of this discussion on the site LeStudio1.com (French).

Bernard Bujold -
http://www.lestudio1.com/EntrevueSergeLosique2009.html