Biography
Born in Quebec City on July 3, 1929, Clément Perron obtained his bachelor's degree at Laval University. He then went to France to study literature (in Poitiers), then at the Sorbonne in Paris in preparation for a career as a teacher. Out of a desire to learn, he also enrolled in the Film Institute and he became a frequent visitor to the French cinematheque, where he really discovered cinema and its great creators. Upon his return to Canada in 1957, he joined the National Film Board as a screenwriter ("Correlieu", "L'Emigré", "L'Amiante"...). Dissatisfied, wishing to push further the experience of creating a film, he began directing in 1960. his first film with a documentary about Governor General Georges-P. Vanier. His first truly personal film was a 1962 documentary set in a small town where a paper mill determines the daily life of its population. With its striking editing and oppressive soundtrack by Maurice Blackburn, "Day After Day" was a strong denunciation of alienation at work in a way that is perhaps even more alarming than Fritz Lang's "Metropolis". He continued to shoot until the early 1980s, sometimes co-directing with Georges Dufaux, alternating interesting shorts with original features, including the eccentric "C'est pas la faute à Jacques Cartier" (1967). In the early 1970s, he wrote the screenplay for the film "Mon oncle Antoine", directed by Claude Jutra, one of the major works of Quebec and Canadian cinema. It earned Perron two awards, one at the 1971 Canadian Film Awards and the other at the 7th Chicago International Film Festival. Perron followed up with the social drama "Taureau" (1973), the first feature film for which he was both writer and director. The subject, intolerance in a rural community, was controversial and the film got mixed reviews. His next opus, "Partis pour la gloire", about conscription, was much better received. Apart from writing and directing, Clement Perron was also a demanding producer, for fellow filmmakers like Jean-Pierre Lefebvre ("Mon amie Pierrette") or Jacques Godbout ("Kid sentiment"). Perron finally retired from the NFB in 1986 to work in the private sector primarily as a writer. He died in 1999 in Pointe-Claire, Quebec.
