Marc Paradis
Biography
Born in Montreal in 1955, Marc Paradis studied drama and plastic arts. He also participated in numerous training workshops, from 1978 to 1990, notably with Józef Robakowski, Bruno Bigoni, Jerzy Grotowski and Michael Kriegman. Paradis became interested in video in 1981, when he produced a screen test for a film by French director Jean-François Garsi, of whom he was then the assistant. He made The Ogre's Journey, the first of his 17 achievements. His works question the romantic relationships between men, desire, fantasy, the representation of sexuality while playing, sometimes, at the limits of pornography. In 1984, he co-signed with Luc Bourdon, Video Scheme and, the following year, Say Cheese for a Trans-Canadian Look, two bands that focused on video art in Canada. He also produces portraits and performance recordings of artists such as Denis Lessard, John Mingolla and Yves Lalonde. His work has received both national and international recognition. Marc Paradis died in Montreal in the summer of 2019.
Known For & Full Filmography2 Titles
Movie - 1981, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
Identifying himself intimately with serial killer John Wayne Gacy, the director uses the camera to take hold of the actors, constructing fantasies that lead them to believe they are the victims in a film yet to be made. The young men, aged 19 to 26, speak from the heart about love and prostitution. Their search leads us into another world. Is this the world of John Wayne Gacy?
Movie - 1985, 2h 15m • as self
Luc Bourdon, Marc Paradis and Simon B. Robert are curators for a selection of Canadian video to be presented within the context of the 13th Montréal International Festival of New Cinema and Video. This tape relates their experiences and research which occurs during their journey across Canada. This document is less a documentation of the trip than a logical suite to the questions raised in a previous work, Scheme vidéo. Focusing on the displacement of the three curators, the tape reflects their perceptions through the random capture of images. With Paul Wong, Grant Poier, Nida Home Doherty, Jerry Kissel, John Greyson and Collin Campbell.