Marc Paradis

La Cage seems to be divided into two parts: a homosexual writer visualises his fantasies and a collective joins what seems to be the story of an encounter between two men.

Harems is a love story between a screen-writer and a gogo-boy, the latter being typically representative of the image of seduction in the 80's. The screenwriter leaves on a journey and asks the gogo-boy to accompany him. A scandal breaks out and the gogo-boy's antics lead to both men's meeting with the narrator. She introduces the spectator to the psychological state of the screen-writer - who is in the process of inventing a mythic character based on his lover - and befriends and helps the gogo-boy in his quest for happiness. The narrator relates the story taking place between the two men and questions the relationship between fantasy and the reality of love.

Created during a workshop focussing on the representation of the human body at the 2nd Video Biennial in Medellin, Colombia, Réminiscences carnivores engages the imagination and all of the senses. Memories of an incestuous relationship come to the surface as the apprehensive narrator waits for a reunion with his brother. With readings from Augustin Gomez-Arcos, Gide and Verlaine, the work has the rich texture of a cameo.

Close-ups of lovers caressing and images of nearly motionless nude males are presented as a collage. A young man feverishly comments upon le mal d’amour by confronting desire and disappointment, including moments of his everyday life and moments which occur in a dream-like state. This results in an opposition between the primitive simplicity of sexuality and the complexity of love to which we traditionally associate it. This work focuses upon the omnipresence of sexuality and its inevitable changes and ramifications in long-term relationships.

Rome, a palimpsest: monuments, the Catholic church, the everyday life.

A short video in three acts that tells the story of an encounter between three men. Possibility, certainty and reality. The place: between Montreal and the Laurentians in the autumn of 1984. The misty and damp atmosphere of late November. The narration is singed by Yves Dionne.

Identifying himself intimately with serial killer John Wayne Gacy, the director uses the camera to take hold of the actors, constructing fantasies that lead them to believe they are the victims in a film yet to be made. The young men, aged 19 to 26, speak from the heart about love and prostitution. Their search leads us into another world. Is this the world of John Wayne Gacy?

Lettre à un amant is the final chapter of Paradis’ video trilogy. It deals with a couple's break-up. It is both a letter and a reflection, and it concerns giving of one's self, sharing and exchanging. It is also a response to the other person's flight, the absence, the void. The images attempt to replace the fear and silence. A need sublimated in the exacerbation of pleasure conveyed by images and sounds, Lettre à un amant is a masterful conclusion to the series. At the same time, it poses several questions about the dichotomous love-image paradox present in love. This work also refers to an earlier work by Marc Paradis, La Cage, because of its erotic homosexual content and its many electronic applications. Richard Anger's original score was composed to emphasize the dramatic aspect while several processes proper to the video medium serve to peg the images in an aesthetic approach.

Filmed in 1983, during the presentation of Peter Weiss' play at the Fred Barry theater at UQAM. This document exposes us to a play dealing with the Shoah, and its intention to present the medium of video as a specific language.

Luc Bourdon, Marc Paradis and Simon B. Robert are curators for a selection of Canadian video to be presented within the context of the 13th Montréal International Festival of New Cinema and Video. This tape relates their experiences and research which occurs during their journey across Canada. This document is less a documentation of the trip than a logical suite to the questions raised in a previous work, Scheme vidéo. Focusing on the displacement of the three curators, the tape reflects their perceptions through the random capture of images. With Paul Wong, Grant Poier, Nida Home Doherty, Jerry Kissel, John Greyson and Collin Campbell.