Directed by Luc Bourdon (fr) Edited by Michel Giroux Running time 80 min 23 s | Produced by Christian Medawar Release date 2008 | |
Production
company National Film Board of Canada | ||
The Memories of Angels (Original French title: La Mémoire des anges) is a 2008 collage film by Luc Bourdon, created entirely from stock footage from over 120 National Film Board of Canada films, as an homage to the city of Montreal in the 1950s and 1960s. Bourdon incorporates material from films by such well-known directors as Michel Brault, Claude Jutra, Gilles Groulx, Denys Arcand and Arthur Lipsett.
Created by the NFB to help mark its 70th anniversary, the idea for the film had originated 15 years earlier, during a conversation between Bourdon and NFB producer Colette Loumède about making a documentary film entirely from other movies. Poring over the vintage footage, Bourdon chose his hometown of Montreal — also the headquarters of the NFB — to be the central character of the film, since no other actor would appear throughout the film.
The film received the award for best Quebec film at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema. It was also chosen as one of the top ten Canadian films of the year by the Toronto International Film Festival.