It was a special time in Fort Coulonge, last weekend, as l’École secondaire Sieur de Coulonge (ESSC) played host to the premiere of Mad Dog Labine, an hour and a half feature film about a young teenager’s life in the Pontiac.

Hundreds of Pontiac residents, including many ESSC students and staff, filled the school’s auditorium, on Saturday and Sunday, anxious to see the long-awaited project finally come to fruition.

As directors and writers Jonathan Beaulieu-Cyr and Renaud Lessard prepared for the screening of their new movie, they looked back on all the work that went into putting the project together.

“It makes me quite emotional to know that it’s screening there [at the school],” said Lessard. “There will be a lot of kids who acted or participated in the film that will be attending.”

The movie was initially created, because of Beaulieu-Cyr and Lessard’s their fascination with the Pontiac from an outside perspective.

With Beaulieu-Cyr coming from Temiscaming and Lessard from Aylmer, the Pontiac was something the two had often heard about from a young age, but never truly got a chance to experience.

“We always had a certain fascination [with the Pontiac],” said Lessard. “It was like some kind of secret we shared together and that few people knew about. We shared that interest and that hunger to go and really discover the territory and the people.”

A fictional drama, with certain documentary-style elements to it, the goal of the production crew was to give the actors a sense of creative freedom, thus giving the picture’s look and feel the utmost level of authenticity.

According to Beaulieu-Cyr, the purpose behind the movie was to shed light on some of the hidden gems of the Pontiac and to give its people a voice, which they often don’t have. Another main point of emphasis was to be as accurate as possible, in the depiction of the characters, the towns and their way of life.

“We wanted to explore what the kids thought of their life,” said Beaulieu-Cyr. “What their ambitions are, where they wanted to go, how they feel about the Pontiac, the landscape, the economy and the community. We explored aspects that we were curious about, while also giving a voice to the kids to express themselves about it.”

The production of the movie started in the fall of 2016, when Beaulieu-Cyr and Lessard visited the Pontiac for the first time. Their first stop was Portage du Fort, which they found to be quite inspiring.

“We were really inspired by the town, the places, the houses … so we started writing the film there,” said Lessard. “Then, we went back in 2017, without a script, just with what we had worked on since then. The film sort of took shape while we were in the Pontiac.”

As filming began in Portage du Fort in the summer of 2017, Lessard said the experience really opened his eyes as to what the Pontiac is really about and that it gave him a chance to build positive relationships with the residents.

“We had the chance to encounter so many people,” said Lessard. “And we really felt that the film kind of grew from these encounters. People were so generous and it was amazing to be making a film there like that.”

The story depicts the life of Mad Dog Labine, a young teenager, from Portage du Fort, a fictional town made up of different streets in various municipalities in the Pontiac. She spends her time stealing empty cans with her friend in order to make money to exchange for lottery tickets. Until one day she wins $10,000, for which they need an adult to claim the prize. Lessard calls the movie a comedy with drama, in which the kids are the main characters.

“We created this image that we called Portage du Fort in the film,” said Beaulieu-Cyr. “But it’s also made up with a street from Chapeau and another from Shawville.”

For Ariane Falardeau St-Amour, who helped with production, costumes and photography in the movie, the first screening was a true opportunity for excitement, as it finally gave the team the chance to showcase their finished product, which had been in the works for over a year.

“This is clearly the screening for which we are feeling the most excited,” said Falardeau St-Amour. “We’re back where everything first started – it means a lot to be here tonight.”

Julie Martin, ESSC’s principal, said it was an easy decision to host the premiere in the school’s auditorium, considering the school’s role in the movie, since that’s where the project started in June 2017.

“It’s a little bit like cutting off the bow, because this is where it all started,” said Martin. “We invited students to do auditions and we spent a good two days having auditions at the school and some of them were picked. We even used our ESSC school uniforms in the film and some of our classrooms.”

Martin said she hoped viewers would leave the theatre with a sense of pride in their region and that anything is possible no matter how small you are or where you’re from.

“People are going to see the beauty of the Pontiac,” said Martin. “They’ll see how well we live, how we are in good health – I think that’s important. We want to show how even in a small school, we have a lot of talent. We want to prove that even though we’re in the Pontiac, everything is possible.”

In the end, 250 people showed up for both screenings, which grossed around $1,200 in total.

A portion of the revenue will be used to pay for the event’s operational expenses, while the rest will subsidize a dramatic arts training program at ESSC spearheaded by the artists who created the movie, according to Martin.

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