Through the Mist

Jean-Philippe Duval’s film tells the life of André Fortin, known to everyone as Dédé, founder and frontman of the Québécois band Les Colocs. At its centre is the period when the band withdrew to Saint-Étienne-de-Bolton in the Estrie region and wrote Dehors novembre, their last and best known album. What the film reaches for is the distance between the cheerful man on stage and what that man was living with when he was alone. Fortin took his own life in Montreal on 8 May 2000; the foundation that carries his name now works on depression awareness and suicide prevention. Sébastien Ricard plays Dédé, the music is by Les Colocs and Éloi Painchaud, and Roger Frappier and Luc Vandal produced. It opened on 13 March 2009, passed a million dollars at the box office and won four Jutra awards in 2010.