Does it Matter Who Directs the Story? Comparing Québec’s Immigrant Cinema and the Cinema of Immigration Through Case Studies of Karaman and Deraspe, Villeneuve and Bensaddek

Abstract

If it is true that “[c]inema has from its inception been transnational, circulating more or less freely across borders and utilizing international personnel” (Ezra and Rowden 2006, 2), it is equally indisputable that cinematic traditions have historically reflected and reinforced national, regional, or ethnolinguistic identities. The cinema of Québec is a case in point, such that Bill Marshall’s choice of title for his 2001 landmark study, Quebec National Cinema , generally went unremarked upon. Since the turn of the millennium, however, “other” or immigrant stories are receiving increased interest and representation on screen. The crux of the current terminological dilemma is that while theorists of accented, diaspora, exilic, or transnational cinema tend to privilege films made by immigrant directors, a significant number of Québec films about immigrant experiences have been made by non-immigrant directors. Drawing on films released since 2010 by Onur Karaman, Sophie Deraspe, Denis Villeneuve, and Bachir Bensaddek, I discuss how they defy or destabilize the terminological landscape and propose the distinction between immigrant cinema and the cinema of immigration, the latter of which, I argue, embraces films made about immigration by non-immigrant directors. By bringing together examples of the cinema of immigration and immigrant cinema, this article examines the issues raised by the expanding inclusivity and popularity of stories of and by Québec’s ethnocultural “others.”