Influential Quebec film producer Rock Demers dies at 87

Cinematic icon, Rock Demers, left, is invested as Companion to the Order of Canada by Governor General Michaelle Jean during a ceremony at Rideau Hall, in Ottawa, Friday February 22, 2008. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand

Montreal — The most influential producer of Quebec youth cinema, Rock Demers, passed away Monday night at the age of 87.

The man behind La Fête Productions produced many films that have marked the imagination of many children such as La guerre des tuques, Bach et Bottine and La grenouille et la baleine.

Rock Demers spent decades in the world of cinema. In 1963, he was one of the co-founders of the Cinémathèque québécoise, created under the name Connaissance du cinéma.

He also directed the Montreal International Film Festival from 1962 to 1967.

In 1965, Demers created the company Faroun Films, where he remained until 1978.

"I lived a very poor, but very happy childhood and I think that the more you give young people the opportunity to laugh, the better you prepare them to face difficulties later on," he said in an interview with the Nouvelliste in 2014.

It is this desire to make young people laugh, to offer them moments of happiness that led him to devote his career to youth cinema. In the same interview, he said that it was after reading an article on the suicide rate among youth between the ages of 12 to 17 that he was inspired to create Contes pour tous.

"I was at an age where I knew that life was hard, but worth living. I wondered what I could do for some young people who were thinking about this subject, so that they would realize that it was worthwhile to continue," he said.

He founded the production company La Fête and launched the ambitious project of producing a series of films for children. This was the birth of Contes pour tous, whose first feature film, La guerre des tuques, was a spectacular success and left its mark on the imagination of children in the 1980s.

This was followed by Opération beurre de pinotte, Bach et Bottine (avec une jeune Mahée Paiement), La grenouille et la baleine and Les aventuriers du timbre perdu, all of which delighted young moviegoers.

Over the decades, the series of Contes pour tous grew to about 20 films.

In 2015, Demers passed the torchand decided to sell Productions La Fête to filmmaker Dominic James.

The producer has seen his prolific career rewarded by several honours. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Chevalier des Arts et des lettres de France.

He was also awarded the François Truffaut prize at the Giffoni Film Festival in Italy.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Aug. 17, 2021.