Director, Screenwriter, Sound

(b. April 16, 1935 Bouchette, Quebec)

Though he began a successful career as a director in 1965, Marcel Carrière is best known for his contributions as a sound engineer at the National Film Board from 1956 to 1966. He made key creative contributions to the development of direct cinema in Quebec, especially on films whose sound is a crucial expressive element, such as Michel Brault and Gilles Groulx’s Les Raquetteurs (1958), Pierre Perrault’s Pour la suite du monde (1962), Brault and Claude Jutra’s Québec-USA (1962), and Wolf Koenig and Roman Kroitor’s Lonely Boy (1962).

Carrière joined the NFB in 1956 after studying electronic engineering and developed his skills as a sound engineer while working on wildlife films, the Candid Eye films and the work of the newly formed French Unit. On Les Raquetteurs, his love of experimenting led him to devise a way to record synchronized sound before it was technically possible for sound to be synched with the camera.

His first film as director was La Lutte (1961), a collaboration with Brault, Jutra and Claude Fournier. He then made the transition to solo directing with Villeneuve, peintre-barbier (1965) and his masterful Avec tambours et trompettes (1967). In addition to several celebrated documentaries, he also contributed a few notable fiction films, the most memorable being the sociological satire OK… La liberté (1973).

Film and video work includes

Pour au contre les éstrangers, Pour au contre series, 1955 (sound)
Raising the Hogs the Market Wants, 1955 (sound)
Canada's Air Defence 1956 (sound)
Chantons maintenant, Passe-Partout series, 1956 (sound)
La Communauté juive de Montréal, Passe-Partout series, 1956 (sound)
Le Monde des femmes, Le Monde des femmes Passe-Partout series, 1956 (sound)
Call it ... Rehabilitation 1957 (sound)
Pas un mot..., Passe-Partout series, 1957 (sound)
The Clerk, The Nature of Work, World in Action series, 1958 (sound; TV)
Julie: Part 2 - Tactical Procedures, Julie series, 1958 (sound with Clarke Daprato, Kathleen Shannon)
Le Maitre du Perou, Panoramique series, 1958 (sound)
Pays neuf, 1958 (sound)
Student Nurse, Perspective series, 1958 (sound)
Les 90 Jours, Paoramique series, 1959 (sound)
1,500,000 of Us, Frontiers series, 1959 (sound)
Canada - World Citizen, Frontiers series, 1959 (sound)
Jour de juin, Temps présent series, 1959 (sound with Michel Belaieff, André Hourlier, Claude Pelletier)
Man of Music, 1959 (sound)
Marius Barbeau et l'art totemique, Profils and Paysages Temps prèsent, 1959 (sound)
Marius Barbeau et le Folklore canadien-français, 1959 (sound)
Les Petites Soeurs, 1959 (sound)
Prairie Bonanza, Frontiers series, 1959 (sound)
Report on Cancer, Frontiers, 1959 (sound)
Tout l'or du monde, 1959 (sound)
Cyrias Ouellet homme de science, Profils Temp présent series, 1960 (sound)
La Chaudière, Temps présent series, 1960 (sound) Ghost Hunters, 1960 (sound)
Le Prix de la science, 1960 (sound)
This Electronic World, Documentary 60 Frontiers series, 1960 (sound with André Hourlier)
Les Administrateurs, Temps présent series, 1961 (sound)
Courtship, Comparisons series, 1961 (sound)
Les Dieux, Temps present series, 1961 (sound with Joseph Champagne)
Quatre Instituteurs, Comparison series, 1961 (sound)
The Test, 1961 (sound)
Adultes avec reserve...[Boulevard Saint Laurent] Temps présent series, 1962 (sound)
L'École des peintres, 1962 (sound with Joseph Champagne)
Les Enfants du silence, 1962 (sound)
Le Jeu de l'hiver, 1962 (sound)
Kindergarten, 1962 (sound)
The Living Machine, Explorations series, 1962 (sound with George Croll)
Pour quelques arpents de neige, Temps présent series, 1962 (sound)
Québec-U.S.A. ou l'Invasion pacifique, 1962 (sound with Ron Alexander, Roger Lamoureux)
Recontres à Mitzic, Ceux qui parlent français series, 1963 (director)
Rose et Landry, Ceux qui parlent français series, 1963 (sound)
Voir Miami, 1963 (sound)
La Fleur de l'âge, 1964 (sound)
Jusqu'au cou 1964 (sound)
Werner Nold, Ron Alexander, Roger Lamoureux, Claude Pelletier, Leo O'Donnell, Roger Hart, Pierre Lemelin)
Le Temps perdu, 1964 (sound)
Villeneuve, peintre-barbier, 1964 (director; editor with Monique Fortier)
Bonjour Toronto!, 1965 (sound)
La Bourse et la vie, 1965 (sound)
Geneviève, 1965 (sound)
Un Jeu si simple, 1965 (sound)
Regards sur l'occultisme (1re partie)-Magie et Miracles, 1965 (sound)
Regards sur l'occultisme (2e partie)-Science et esprits, 1965 (sound)
Les Départs nécessaires, 1965 (sound)
Astataïon, aka Le Festin des morts, 1965 (sound)
Bois-Francs, 1966 (director)
Comment savoir, 1966 (sound)
Élément 3, 1966 (sound)
Image, que me veux-tu?, 1966 (sound with Hubert Lacasse, Claude Pelletier, Jacques Drouin, Nguyen Van Thong)
In Search of Medea: The Art of Sylvia Lefkovitz, 1966 (director)
La Colombie-Britannique et l'Habitation, A Report on Redevelopment series, 1967 (director)
Notes sur une minorité, 1966 (sound with Joseph Champagne) L'Indien parle, 1967 (director)
Ce soir-là, Gilles Vigneault, 1968 (sound)
Episode, 1968 (director)
The Battle of St-Denis... Yesterday, Today, 1969 (director; script)
The Catch aka Capture,1969 (sound)
10 Miles/Hour/10 milles/heure, 1970 (director)
Hotel-Chateau, 1970 (director)
Chez nous, c'est chez nous, Société nouvelle/Challenge for Change, 1972 (director)
OK... La laliberté, 1973 (director)
Le Grand voyage, 1974 (director)
Images de Chine, 1974 (director)
Ping-pong, 1974, (director)
Jeux de la XXIe olympiade , 1977 (director with Jean-Claude Labrecque, Jean Beaudin, Georges Dufaux)
Ti-mine, Bernie pis la gang..., 1977 (director)
La Bataille de la Châteauguay, 1978 (director)
De grace et d'embarras, Société nouvelle/Challenge for Change, 1980 (director)

By: Tom McSorley