This Is Your Museum Speaking

In the documentary A Museum in the City, Luc Bourdon invites us to visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA). This exploration takes us behind the scenes at the institution and looks back over its 150-year history. In gallery after gallery, the director gradually discovers the soul of the place, a soul that does not reside in the artworks alone. In addition to curators, educators, artisans, and the institution's visionary director, Nathalie Bondil, we meet the dynamic and dedicated team of volunteers, patrons and other art lovers without whom the Museum would not exist. A film about a museum has to be a film about art. Luc Bourdon chose to make a film about the art of bringing a museum to life.

Historical events are related through the medium of simulated news broadcasting in 1878.

A freewheeling cinematic experience, this film is the work of two filmmakers who relate their perceptions of each other through their respective animation techniques. Images and words are paired in startling associations. Each does a visual portrait of the other, based on characteristic gestures and impressions. A combination of techniques and materials produces a film of rich visual texture shaped by the hands and heads of two very different people.