Art in Action (L’art en action)
Art in Action (L’art en action)
 

Art In Action

by Magnus Isacsson & Simon Bujold
A portrait of two provocative Montreal artists: their oeuvre, their creative process and their relationship.
2009  ·  1m  ·  Canada
English, French
English subs
About the Film
An abundance of art, love, and idealism : that’s what fuels Annie Roy and Pierre Allard, the founders of ATSA – Quand l’art passe à l’action. For the past decade, ATSA has made performance an act of intervention, an art that engages citizens in the struggle for a humane and civil society. Magnus Isacsson homes his camera on the political idealism and domestic demands of the Roy-Allard partnership and finds inspiration, generosity and integrity in their exemplary life project. A powerful, moving and candid documentary that makes you believe in a better tomorrow. ATSA ( Quand l’art passe à l’action ) is an organization founded in 1997 by artists Pierre Allard and Annie Roy to create so-called urban interventions: installations, performances and realistic stagings bearing witness to the various social and environmental aberrations which preoccupy the two artists. Their works investigate and transform the urban landscape and restore the citizen’s place in the public realm, depicting it as a political space open to discussion and societal debates. ATSA promotes an open, active and responsible vision of artists as citizens contributing to the sustainable development of their society.  
Upcoming Screenings

Stay tuned for upcoming screenings!

Director
Magnus Isacsson, Simon Bujold
Sound Design
Olivier Calvert
Images
Simon Bujold
Editing
Louise Côté
Music
Robert Marcel Lepage
Participant
Pierre Allard, Annie Roy
Sound recording
Magnus Isacsson
Producer
Jeannine Gagné
Script
Magnus Isacsson
Soundtrack Composer
Robert M Lepage
About the Director

Simon Bujold

Simon Bujold
Simon Bujold

Associate director and DOP Simon Bujold specializes in expedition and Arctic shoots. His own films include Qanuippitaa (2005) and At the Open Space (2009).

 

Magnus Isacsson

Telling dramatic stories which bring crucial social and political issues to the attention of the public – that was Magnus Isacsson’s objective as a documentary filmmaker. In the last fifteen years, he specialized in feature length “process films”, following conflictual situations over long periods of time. Power (Cineflix 1996), told the five-year story of how the Cree Indians defeated Hydro-Québec’s Great Whale megaproject. The film received the award for best documentary at the Paris International Environmental Film Festival in 1997 and the Grand Prize of the Lausanne festival in 1999.  The Choir Boys (Érézi 1999) about Montreal’s choir of homeless men, was nominated for several major Canadian awards and received the Golden Conch at the Mumbai International festival in 2000. The feature length View from the Summit,  (Érézi 2002) is a multi-faceted view of the politics of protest, which the Globe and Mail called “remarkable…riveting”.  Isacsson also co-directed Pressure Point (Multi-Monde 1999), a film on the same theme that received the Quebec Film Critics award for Best Documentary in 2000. Maxime, McDuff and McDo  (Virage), his second film on attempts to unionize McDonald’s restaurants, was nominated for three Gémeaux awards.  Isacsson’s most recent films are ‘The Battle of Rabaska’ ( with Martin Duckworth, ONF 2008) and Art in Action (Amazone Films 2009) which received the Prix Gémeaux for best portrait or biography in 2011. Isacsson received the 2004 Prix Lumières from the Quebec directors’ association. ( ARRQ.)

Magnus Isacsson was born in Sweden in 1948. He immigrated to Canada in 1970 and became a Canadian citizen in 1978. He is fluent in Swedish, English and French and understands Spanish. After studying political science at the Universities of Stockholm and Montreal, Isacsson started his career as a radio producer for Swedish Broadcasting and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from 1972 to 1980. From 1980 to 1986 he directed numerous current affairs reports and investigative stories for the English and French television networks of the CBC, for programs such as Le Point, Contrechamp and The Fifth Estate.

Isacsson taught audiovisual production at l’INIS, the Quebec film school, and at several universities, including Whitman College in Washington State, the University of Montreal and Concordia U. In the mid-eighties he taught video production in Zimbabwe and South Africa for Montreal-based Vidéo Tiers Monde (Third World Video). He directed an instructional tape on video production, which received the award for best audiovisual production from the Association for Audiovisual Teaching Techniques in 1991. He was a member and former co-chair of the Documentary Association of Canada (DOC), a member of the Association des Réalisateurs et Réalisatrices du Québec (ARRQ), and of SARTEC. He was also vice-president of the Observatoire du documentaire.

Isacsson passed away in 2012.

 
Other films by Magnus Isacsson

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