Lorraine
Richard (Producer)
Cofounder
and CEO of Cité-Amérique, Lorraine Richard is first and foremost a women
involved. Involved in her daily
work, but also in the more general context of the film industry and, indeed,
in all the stages of her life that led her from the world of the theatre to
that of the cinema.
Richard has produced for Cité-Amérique, the feature
film Dans le ventre du dragon, directed by Yves Simoneau, which won
Outstanding Film of the Year at the London Film Festival.
She also produced Charles Binamé’s Eldorado,
a film chosen at the prestigious Director’s Fortnight at Cannes in 1995, as
well as Le Coeur au poing, released
in March 1998. This film won the
Award of Best Director and the Crystal Globe Award (Best Film) at the 33rd
Karlovy Vary, the Rogers Award for Best Canadian Screenplay at the 17th
International Festival in Vancouver, the Prix d’
interprétation feminine (for Pascale Montpetit) at the 15th
Festival du film d’amour in Mons (Belgium),
as well as two Claude Jutra Awards - Best Actress (for Pascale
Montpetit) and Best Supporting Actress (for Anne-Marie Cadieux).
In addition, Richard produced Pool’s film Emporte-moi,
part of the official competition at the Berlin International Festival in 1999
and recipient of the Special Ecumenical Jury Award, winner of the Silver
Gryphon at the 29th Film Festival of Giffoni (Italy), selected at
the New York Film Festival, given special mention by the jury at the Toronto
International Film Festival, winner of a Bayard d’or for Best Actress at the
Festival international du film francophone in Namur (Belgium), recipient of a
Silver Hugo for Best Screenplay at the Chicago Film Festival, winner of the
Youth Prize at the 44th International Film Festival in Valladolid
(Spain), Best Canadian Film Award by the Toronto Film Critics Association,
Best Feature Film Prize from Les prix du cinéma Suisse, 4 Jutra Awards and a
Special Mention at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
Richard has also produced the television series Les
Filles de Caleb and Blanche.
These series broke all records for television viewing, were sold to two
dozen countries, and won a number of significant awards.
Les filles de Caleb won
thirteen Gemeaux Awards, the Gold FIPA for best television series and the Gold
Medal for best dramatic series at the New York Festival.
Another of Cité-Amérique’s productions, the television series Marguerite
Volant, won a Silver FIPA in Biarritz in 1997.
More recently, Richard
produced Four Days, the first
feature film for director Curtis Wehrfritz, which had its world premier at the
Toronto Festival ’99. She also
co-produced the television series Le
femme de boulanger, with France, adapted from the novel by Marcel Pagnol,
as well as the Marseilles trilogy, Marius,
César, and Fanny. She produced La
Beauté de Pandore, by Charles Binamé and now she is currently working on
the post production of Random
Passage, an eigth-hour series written by Des Walsh and directed by John N.
Smith (the creative team responsibile for The
Boys of St.Vincent) as well as on the post production of the feature film Lost
and Delirious, directed by Léa Pool and written by Judith Thompson, based
on a novel by Susan Swan.
For Richard,
“Producing is creating stories and telling them from the heart so that the
magic takes us beyond mere entertainment.”
(taken
from the Lions Gate Films press kit, 2001)