THE DIRECTORS | PRODUCERS | THE TEAM
Julie Roy
Julie Roy has been a producer at the Animation and Youth Studio at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) since April 2007. She produced Hungu (2008) by Nicolas Brault, which won the award for Best Short Animation Film at the Palm Springs International ShortFest (United States), and The Necktie/Le nœud cravate (2008) by Jean-François Lévesque, winner of the Grand Prize for Short Film at the Festival des films du monde in Montreal (Canada). Working closely with emerging filmmakers, she also co-produced two short films with France’s Folimage studio: Rosa Rosaby Félix Dufour-Laperrière and Rains/L'Ondée by David Coquard-Dassault. She is currently working on Patrick Bouchard’s upcoming film, Bydlo, as well as Michèle Lemieux’s Le grand ailleurs et le petit ici.
Prior to becoming a producer, Julie Roy was responsible for marketing some sixty short animation films made at the NFB between 2000 and 2006, including Black Soul/Âme noire (2000) by Martine Chartrand, The Brainwashers/Les ramoneurs cérébraux (2002) by Patrick Bouchard, L’homme sans ombre (2004) by Georges Schwizgebel, and Accordion/Accordéon (2004) by Michèle Cournoyer. In 2006, she also headed the high-profile marketing campaign for the NFB’s 65th anniversary, coordinating the presentation of a Norman McLaren retrospective that ran in several countries and overseeing the release of the DVD box set Norman McLaren: The Master’s Edition. A graduate of the University of Montreal, Julie Roy has also written widely on women and animation film.
Michèle Bélanger
In the course of 18 years with the National Film Board of Canada, Michèle Bélanger has developed considerable expertise in the distribution and promotion of documentary and animation films and interactive Web sites. However, her love of film dates back to her student days at Université Laval, where she became interested in ethnographic documentaries while studying ethnology and anthropology. In 1983, she joined the programming team of the Ciné-club de la Poudrière, a small repertory cinema in Quebec City that presented screenings followed by talks. She then founded the Ciné-club du Plateau, an organization that promoted first films. She maintained her interest in emerging filmmakers throughout her time at the NFB’s Quebec City office, initiating the event Vidéaste recherché(e) in cooperation with the Institut canadien de Québec.
Bélanger worked as a promotions officer at the NFB’s Quebec City office for close to ten years. Her duties included creating launch strategies and promotional campaigns for NFB productions as well as coordinating regional cultural events. In organizing tours of NFB films, she developed in-depth knowledge of the audiences in Quebec’s various regions.
In fall 2000 she became the Internet Development Officer for the French Animation and Youth Studio in Montreal. In this capacity, she produced the Ludovic Web site and lent her target-audience expertise to development of the large-scale Web project La Mission/The Mission.
From 2002 to 2007, Bélanger worked as a producer in the Animation and Youth Studio. She produced Nicolas Brault's Antagonia (2002), winner of the 2000 Cinéaste recherché(e) competition, as well as Ilôt/Islet (2003), his second film. She also produced the latest work by veteran animator Co Hoedeman, Marianne’s Theatre /Le théâtre de Marianne (2004), as well as Patrick Bouchard’s Dehors novembre (2004), Frédérick Tremblay's Remote Paradise/Un jour ordinaire pas comme les autres, winner of the Cinéaste recherché(e) contest, and Catherine Arcand’s Nightmare at School/Cauchemar à l’école. She also produced the Kiwistiti collective’s Web short, La vie avec un brin de folie/That Crazy Game Called Life.
She helped enhance the NFB Kids site by producing the interactive aspect to Pierre M. Trudeau, Cuckoo, Mr. Edgar/ Coucou, Monsieur Edgar! and Operation Cuckoo/Opération coucou. The Cuckoo! site won the 2004 Boomerang award in the youth category.
Bélanger was interim Executive Producer at the Animation and Youth Studio from 2005 to 2006 before being appointed Programming Advisor in the French Program in 2007.
She has sat on the board of directors of the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois since 1999.
