Eric Denis better known as Eric "Roach" Denis is a Canadian documentary film maker and activist whose films deal with social justice, and particularly homelessness.
Eric Denis better known as Eric "Roach" Denis is a Canadian documentary film maker and activist whose films deal with social justice, and particularly homelessness.
Denis was born in Grenville, Quebec. At age 9, his parents divorced and he went on to live with his mother in Hawkesbury, Ontario. After a brief stay with his father, he was put in a juvenile detention centre because he had been hooked on smoking marijuana. At the age of 14, he escaped from the center he was assigned to and started living as a street kid in the streets of Montreal acquiring addiction to hard drugs in the process as a teenager. [1] [2]
Denis assuming the pseudonym "Roach" became a squeegee teenager sleeping in parks, abandoned cars and refuge centers and was arrested many times. [1] [2] [3] It was during these troubled times that he met EyeSteelFilm's director Daniel Cross who was planning to shoot a documentary film about squeegees and Roach offered to tell his part of the story by film thus beginning his career as a documentary filmmaker and activist. [1] [2] [4]
Denis began first by documenting his own life as an autobiography, entitled "RoachCam" as part of the acclaimed S.P.I.T.: Squeegee Punks in Traffic directed by Daniel Cross and Mila Aung-Thwin. [5] [6]
Using cinema as a motivation to get cleaned up, "Roach" has gone on to make two other films with EyeSteelFilm: RoachTrip is his directorial debut film. It is autobiographical take about the invisible punk highway from Quebec to the orchards of British Columbia. In August 2004, the film went on to win the second prize in the "Portraits" category" in Tver festival in Russia.
He recently directed Punk the Vote! , again an autobiographical documentary which saw Roach and fellow punker Starbuck run for Canadian federal elections against Liberal incumbent Jean Lapierre, in an informative, hilarious take on Canadian politics punk-rock style. [7] Eric Denis didn't win the election. [8] Roach had 101 votes. [9] His main goal in this film was to give the homeless the opportunity to vote. [10]
From his works also is the short film ZLEA: Zone Libre d'Expression Anarchiste (translated as Free Zone for Anarchist Expression) in 2005.
Denis' films have played in festivals such as Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, in Tver (Russia), DocsDF (Mexico City) and Nemo (Paris).
Tickets is about the police tactic of issuing large numbers of minor infractions against homeless people in order to “evict” them from public areas, eventually relocating them to prison. This new film examines the social, financial and human cost of criminalizing Montreal's homeless community. By following this issue from the Ministry of Justice, to the streets, and finally to prison, the film aims to investigate what is happening to the rights of society's already alienated street community. It was shown at Festival du Nouveau Cinema, FICFA, RVCQ and other festivals. Denis has also did some conferences on the subject around the province of Quebec. [2]
| 2006 Canadian federal election : Outremont | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Liberal | Jean Lapierre | 14,282 | 35.18 | −5.76 | $69,816 | |||
| Bloc Québécois | Jacques Léonard | 11,778 | 29.01 | −4.24 | $63,590 | |||
| New Democratic | Léo-Paul Lauzon | 6,984 | 17.20 | +3.14 | $26,625 | |||
| Conservative | Daniel Fournier | 5,168 | 12.73 | +6.76 | $73,991 | |||
| Green | François Pilon | 1,957 | 4.82 | +0.53 | $425 | |||
| Independent | Eric Roach Denis | 101 | 0.25 | $431 | ||||
| Progressive Canadian | Philip Paynter | 94 | 0.23 | none listed | ||||
| Marxist–Leninist | Linda Sullivan | 88 | 0.22 | −0.09 | none listed | |||
| Independent | Yan Lacombe | 85 | 0.21 | none listed | ||||
| Independent | Xavier Rochon | 34 | 0.08 | $572 | ||||
| Independent | Régent Millette | 22 | 0.05 | none listed | ||||
| Total valid votes | 40,593 | 100.00 | ||||||
| Total rejected ballots | 282 | 0.69 | ||||||
| Turnout | 40,875 | 60.78 | −4.65 | |||||
| Electors on the lists | 67,253 | |||||||
Source: Official Results, Elections Canada and Financial Returns, Elections Canada.
Georges-Henri Denys Arcand is a French Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. His film The Barbarian Invasions won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2004. His films have also been nominated three further times, including two nominations in the same category for The Decline of the American Empire in 1986 and Jesus of Montreal in 1989, becoming the only French-Canadian director in history whose films have received this number of nominations and, subsequently, to have a film win the award. For The Barbarian Invasions, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, losing to Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation.
The history of cinema in Quebec started on June 27, 1896 when the Frenchman Louis Minier inaugurated the first movie projection in North America in a Montreal theatre room. However, it would have to wait until the 1960s before a genuine Quebec cinema industry would emerge. Approximately 620 feature-length films have been produced, or partially produced by the Quebec film industry since 1943.
A squeegee man or squeegee woman, squeegee kid (Canada), squeegee boy (Baltimore), squeegee punk (Montreal), squeegee merchant (London), squeegee guy or squeegee bandit is a person who, using a washcloth and squeegee, wipes windshields of cars stopped in traffic, in exchange for money.
À Hauteur d'homme is a 2003 Canadian political documentary directed in 2003 by Jean-Claude Labrecque about Bernard Landry and the 2003 general election in Quebec, Canada. It won a Jutra Award for Best Documentary (tie) in 2004. Its style belongs to the Quebec cinéma direct school of filmmaking.
Denis Héroux, was a Canadian film director and producer.
S.P.I.T.: Squeegee Punks in Traffic is a Canadian 2001 documentary film by Daniel Cross. The narrative unfolds from the point of view of squeegee kids.
General Rudie was a third wave ska band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In their nine-year career, the band released two full-length albums on Stomp Records and toured extensively throughout Canada and the United States.
Éric Caire is a Canadian politician from Quebec, Canada, and the CAQ Member of the National Assembly for the electoral district of La Peltrie.
Brett Gaylor is a Canadian documentary filmmaker living in Victoria, British Columbia. He grew up on Galiano Island, British Columbia. He was formerly the VP of Mozilla's Webmaker Program. His documentary, Do Not Track, explores privacy and the web economy.
Polytechnique is a 2009 Canadian drama film directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Villeneuve and Jacques Davidts. Starring Maxim Gaudette, Sebastien Huberdeau, and Karine Vanasse, the film is based on the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre and re-enacts the events of the incident through the eyes of two students who witness a gunman (Gaudette) murder fourteen young women.
HomelessNation.org is a not-for profit organization based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In order to bridge the digital divide, documentary filmmaker Daniel Cross created www.HomelessNation.org in 2003. A website by and for the homeless, www.homelessnation.org gives people on the street the opportunity to control their own voice and engage the public in a safe and supportive forum. HomelessNation.org outreach workers teach computer and media skills to facilitate self-expression and community involvement. Improved knowledge and self-esteem help individuals make healthier life choices and transition off the street. The project has directly impacted thousands of individuals across Canada and is now gaining ground internationally. The project has won 4 major ICT awards, including a prestigious World Summit Award.
Daniel Cross a Canadian documentary filmmaker, producer and activist whose films deal with social justice.
The Street: A Film with the Homeless is a 78-minute 1997 documentary film about the homeless in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The film was directed by Daniel Cross and produced by him and Don Haig. The production houses were the National Film Board of Canada and Necessary Illusions Productions Inc.
EyeSteelFilm is a Montreal-based Canadian cinema production company co-founded by Daniel Cross and Mila Aung-Thwin, dedicated to socially engaged cinema, bringing social and political change through cinematic expression. Today the studio is run by Co-Presidents Mila Aung-Thwin and Bob Moore.
Mila Aung-Thwin is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, producer and activist whose films deal with social justice.
Punk the Vote! is a 73-minute 2006 Canadian documentary about the Canadian elections, and a hilarious and at the same time a critical take on Canadian politics punk-rock style, when two punks decide to run as independent candidates for the Canadian elections. The film is directed by Eric "Roach" Denis of EyeSteelFilm, a Montreal-based documentary production company. It was produced by EyeSteelFilm in association with Canal D Canadian specialty channel specializing in documentaries.
RoachTrip is a 2003 Canadian documentary about two punks, Roach and his friend Smash down the invisible punk highway across Canada. It captures their goal to escape the streets of Montreal as they cross 5,000 km (3,107 mi) to reach the "promised land" of British Columbia's Okanagan Valley.
Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam is a 2009 documentary film, directed by Omar Majeed and produced by EyeSteelFilm, about various Taqwacore bands and performers touring the United States and Pakistan. The documentary was filmed between 2007 and 2009. It was pitched at the 2007 Sheffield Doc/Fest MeetMarket prior to completion.
Denis Côté is an independent filmmaker and producer living in Quebec, of Brayon origin. His experimental films have been shown at major film festivals around the world.
Exiles in Lotusland is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Ilan Saragosti and released in 2005. The film centres on Mélissa "Mélo" Cossette and Dany "Ti-Criss" Nadeau, two homeless teenagers from Quebec who have moved to Vancouver, where they are supporting themselves as squeegee kids.
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