Laurence Lévesque
2024
Canada
Japanese
Family | Drama | Documentary
96 minutes
META FILMS
Noriko Oi, a Japanese-Canadian woman who has been living in Montreal for more than 20 years, is about to return to Nagasaki, her hometown. She has to go back to help her brothers and sisters clear out their childhood home, which will soon be sold.
Within the walls of this old house lie the fragments of the Oi family’s history. What remains of memories when families’ secrets are locked away and end up casting a shadow over the collective recollections? Noriko decides to reconstruct the past of her mother Mitsuko, a survivor of the atomic bomb, in the hope of passing down her cultural heritage to her children and healing the dark reminiscences of the tragic past.
But her quest promises to be arduous. Mitsuko, who passed away 30 years ago, has never shared her story. Through her findings, Noriko meets various allies who will help her uncover her mother's past and unveil unknown details about this era of her native Japan.
Production | Rosalie Chicoine Perreault & Catherine Boily - Metafilms Inc.
Executive Producer | Sylvain Corbeil
Screenplay | Laurence Lévesque
Photography | Sébastien Blais
Sound | Camille Demers-Lambert & Marie-Pierre Grenier
Editing | Marie-Pier Grignon
Music | Wilhelm Brandl
Visions du Réel 2024 | International Feature Film Competition
Hot Docs 2024 | Canadian Spectrum Competition
Hot Docs 2024 | The Earl A. GLick Emerging Filmaker Award
In 2019, Laurence directed a short documentary, PORT D’ATTACHE. The film was selected at Visions du Réel, won the Best National Short Film Award at RIDM and was nominated for best short film at the Québec-Cinéma gala. In 2022, Laurence completes a master's degree in which she reflects on documentary writing and the narrative modes that make up reality. She won the Philippe-Ménard prize for best creative thesis. Her first feature film, OKURIMONO (2024), had its world premiere at Visions du réel and its North American premiere at the Hot Docs festival, where Laurence won the Earl A. Glick Award for emerging Canadian filmmaker.
-Drap contour (2017)
-Port d'attache (2019)
-Perséides (2023)
-Okurimono (2024)