The Noise of Engines

The Noise of Engines is my first feature film, and for this reason, it seems important to approach this debut with a gesture of humility. I would have liked to be a young filmmaker full of talent who made a series of successful short films and travelled the world, but that is not my story. I am the son of shopkeepers, and grew up in an agricultural region of Quebec located about twenty kilometres from the Canadian-American border. It is by working as a part-time customs agent at that border that I was able to pay for film school and save enough money to finance my short films. I didn’t like the job, and it is a part of my life that I kept hidden from my film colleagues for a long time. The Douanier Rousseau is certainly the most famous custom agent who also lead a career as an artist, but that remains a rather marginal reality. This first feature film is an opportunity for me to come back on this very singular work experience which took place at a time when I was dreaming of cinema. The Noise of Engines allows me to shed light on a part of my life that I had tried to deny.