2022–2024
Alexandre Larose (Canada) is a French-Canadian filmmaker born in Montréal, Québec. He received his BEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Sherbrooke (2001); a BFA from Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema (2006); and an MFA in Studio Arts, Film Production from Concordia University (2013). His moving-image practice investigates phenomena of appearance and representation as translated by the media of optics and celluloid. His approach relies on a methodical stripping-out of layers embedded in both the live subjects and the technique that translates them into visual artifacts. Larose’s films have garnered numerous awards, including the Grand Prix and Critics’ Award from 25FPS Festival, Fuji Award from EXiS Festival, Grand Prix from Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, and the International Jury Award for Best Film, Hamburg International Short Film Festival. His films have screened widely at the George Eastman Museum, Belarusian State University, Media City Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, European Media Art Festival, Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, Foundation for Contemporary Art (Kiev), Museum of the Moving Image, International Film Festival Rotterdam, IMAGE Forum, Mostra de Cinema Periférico, Message to Man International Film Festival (St. Petersburg), and hundreds more venues internationally.
The idea of something eternal casts aside the linear concept of time: the one that says that life is a succession of moments—past, present, and future—in relentless, crushing progress. The eternal return speaks of the value of the moment, more than a simple transition: each moment is unique and eternal; it is the full meaning of all existence and an affirmation of life. This is a philosophical concept that seems to be at the heart of the Canadian Alexandre Larose’s filmmaking, in which the concentration of all moments into one, and an insistence on gestures, paths, and motifs, is essential. Variations on the same motif and serial work make up the backbone of his work, which combines a certain scientific meticulousness with outcomes of staggering plasticity and evocative power. It is an exploration of the medium of photochemical cinema and its possibilities which, like the moments he captures in his films, seems to know no end. – Elena Duque