Where I'm From (film)
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''Where I'm From'' () is a 2013
National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...
documentary by
Claude Demers Claude Demers (born March 10, 1962) is a Canadian filmmaker from Montreal, Quebec. He is most noted for his series of documentary films that were indirectly inspired by, or directly about, his experiences as an adoptee. The birth son of an Italia ...
, exploring his childhood in the working class city of
Verdun, Quebec Verdun ( , , ) is a Montreal borough, borough (''arrondissement'') of the city of Montreal, Quebec, located in the southeastern part of the island. Long known as a working class neighbourhood, it has experienced significant gentrification and s ...
and contrasting his experiences with life today in Verdun, now a multi-cultural borough of
Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
. ''Where I'm From'' focuses on two neighbourhood boys who serve as stand-ins for Demers as a child, as well as a variety of local characters. The film explores the changing face of Verdun as well as the filmmaker's anger and unhappiness as a child, due in part to his being adopted. The film also explores the powerful role that the
Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrenc ...
, which borders Verdun, has played in his own imaginative life growing up, as well as the lives of the children in his film. Demers has stated that it also represented a creative risk to make a documentary film not based on interviews, as he had previously done, but rather a personal film that attempts to see life through the eyes of child. Demers, who now lives in
Mile End, Montreal Mile End is a neighbourhood and municipal electoral district in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located in the city’s Le Plateau-Mont-Royal, Plateau-Mont-Royal borough. Description Since the 1980s Mile End has been known for its cult ...
, rented an apartment in his old neighbourhood for three months to regain a feel for the neighbourhood as he planned his shoot. During that process, five key themes emerged that became central to the film, according to the director: "Childhood. The relationship with nature. Faith. The words. And struggle. That was my guideline."


Trilogy

The film has been billed at times as part of two different trilogies. It followed on two films that he was inspired to make after finally meeting his biological mother, which were inspired by the broader cultural contexts in which his birth parents lived but were not as directly personal, and preceded two much more personal essay films about his birth parents as individuals. ''Barbers: A Men's Story (Barbiers – Une histoire d'hommes)'', the first of the cultural films, was inspired by his birth father's
Italian Canadian Italian Canadians or Italo-Canadians (; ) are Canadian-born citizens who are fully or partially of Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who migrated to Canada as part of the Italian diaspora, or Italian-born people in Canada. Accordin ...
heritage and centred on the culture of Italian
barber A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a barbershop or the barber's. Barbershops have been noted places of social interaction and public discourse ...
s in Montreal. Demers' follow up film, ''
Ladies in Blue ''Ladies in Blue'' () is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Claude Demers and released in 2009.Jean-Christophe Laurence"Les dames en bleu : «On t'aime, Michel!» " ''La Presse'', October 7, 2009. The film is a portrait of five women of var ...
(Les dames en bleu)'', was about Quebec singer
Michel Louvain Michel Louvain, (July 12, 1937April 14, 2021) was a Canadian singer most popular in the 1960s and 1970s.
and his legion of mostly female fans from his mother's generation. Demers subsequently also directed '' A Woman, My Mother (Une femme, ma mère)'', an essay film about his efforts to learn more about his birth mother after her death, and ''
Diary of a Father ''Diary of a Father'' () is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Claude Demers and released in 2024. The film is a personal essay about fatherhood, reflecting on how his childhood as an adoptee who never knew his biological father has impacted ...
(Journal d'un père)'', which explored his own relationship with the concept of fatherhood through the lens of both his birth and adoptive fathers, as well as his own relationship with his youhg daughter.


Release

The film had its world premiere at
International Film Festival Rotterdam International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, focused on independent and experimental films. The inaugural festival took place in June 1972, ...
, followed by the Canadian documentary film festivals
RIDM The Montreal International Documentary Festival () is a Canadian documentary film festival, staged annually in Montreal, Quebec. In English, the festival now goes by the name Montreal International Documentary Festival, while retaining the French- ...
and
Hot Docs The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and June ...
. It had its theatrical premiere at
Excentris Excentris was a performing arts center and cinema located on Saint-Laurent Boulevard in Montreal, Quebec. The complex was conceived by Daniel Langlois as a laboratory for digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communi ...
in Montreal and Cinema Le Clap in Quebec City on December 26, 2014. The film received a
Canadian Screen Award The Canadian Screen Awards () are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media ( web series) productions. Given annually by the Academy ...
nomination for Best Cinematography in a Documentary at the