Anne Claire Poirier

Director, Documentarist, Editor, Producer, Scriptwriter
female
Born
1932
Biography

Director, documentarist, editor, producer, scriptwriter. The long career of the grande dame of Quebec (hetero-) feminist cinema was not exactly queer-positive—surprisingly, nary a dyke over thirty-five years of production—and coughed up only one gay male character, a strained and melancholy portrait of a middle-aged man in La quarantaine (1982). Accordingly, her 1988 redemption in the low-budget and unsentimental feature film about the gay male elderly, Salut Victor! (NFB, 84) was all the more refreshing. The warm-hearted feature love story between two elderly inmates of a “home” was based on Matthew and Chauncey by the Montreal gay anglophone novelist Edward O. Phillips. With its high powered cast (the crotchety, closety Philippe is played by Jean-Louis Roux, one of the pioneers of classical theatre in Quebec), Salut Victor! was popular at foreign queer festivals, and on domestic TV.