Private Project

Branché

Through unique, female-driven circus and movement art, BRANCHÉ traverses time and lush natural landscapes of Quebec in a poetic exploration of our potential to work in harmony with nature in the face of the rising conflicts and chaos of the climate crisis. As diminishing resources and livable land drive an existential collapse, the daring three-high formations and breathtaking falls remind us that a oneness of nature and humanity is undoubtedly worth preserving.

  • Janique L Robillard
    Director
    From There To Here, Move for Freedom, #StrandedByVanity
  • Eric Bates
    Director
    All That We Have
  • Sorrell Nielsen
    Writer
  • Eric Bates
    Producer
    All That We Have
  • Janique L Robillard
    Producer
    The Fix, Woodsrider, From There To Here, Move for Freedom, #StrandedByVanity
  • Agathe Bisserier
    Key Cast
  • Anna Soltys Morse
    Key Cast
  • Samuelle McGowan-Richer
    Key Cast
  • Anne-Marie Godin
    Key Cast
  • Adrien Malette-Chénier
    Key Cast
  • Clara Scudder-Davis
    Key Cast
  • Tristan Nielsen
    Key Cast
  • Sorrell Nielsen
    Key Cast
  • Eric Bates
    Key Cast
  • Nathan Biggs-Penton
    Acrobatics Director
  • Kes Tagney
    Director of Photography
    Living the Dream, All for an Apple, Walk on Boy
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    Experimental, Dance, Circus, Climate
  • Runtime:
    15 minutes 50 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 15, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    36,615 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    RED
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • San Francisco Dance Film Festival
    San Francisco, CA
    United States
    October 8, 2023
    World Premiere
    Official Selection, "Raising Voices" Film
  • Portland Dance Film Festival
    Portland, OR
    United States
    November 19, 2023
    Oregon Premiere
    Official Selection, Long Form Award Winner
Director Biography - Janique L Robillard, Eric Bates

JANIQUE L ROBILLARD is an independent documentary and experimental filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. Her freelance work spans many categories – live action and animated content, music videos, and commercial work for major brands like Google and Nike – but her passion has always been in celebrating the everyday extraordinary through documentary storytelling. Janique actively seeks opportunities to elevate womxn’s voices and marginalized communities in film, evidenced in her work on 1000 Times (a women’s MMA short documentary) which was awarded the Women In Film Vision Grant and her on-going collaboration with the Free Body Project series, which includes their short FROM THERE TO HERE (currently in educational distribution) which was supported by the Fulbright Foreign Student Program and a Dance Films Association Production Grant. She has produced work for acclaimed directors including Kim A Snyder (THE LIBRARIANS and UNTITLED 1214 PROJECT now in production) and Jeremiah Zagar (THE FIX docu-series on Roku), and developed documentary projects for both directors and clients including Netflix. Janique completed her BS in Journalism and Finance at Syracuse University and earned her MFA in Filmmaking at Maryland Institute College of Art, where she continues to teach Film Branding workshops.

ERIC BATES is a co-founder of the Branché project, and has worked professionally around the world as a circus artist since he graduated from the National Circus School of Montreal in 2011. Over the past years he has begun to combine his love for human performance with film, seeking out stories of people pursuing their passions. His short documentary ALL THAT WE HAVE that was awarded the Jury Choice and Audience Choice in the Circus International Film Festival in 2023.

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Director Statement

This film is based on the show “Branché,” co-created by Cirque Barcode and Acting for Climate Montréal. The purpose of the project is to use the circus arts as a conduit to express something both companies care deeply about – the climate crisis – and to do so with the least environmental impact possible during creation and touring. At each new venue, the artists adapt the show to emphasize and celebrate the beauty and the specificities of the natural landscapes of Quebec. Branché is a celebration of the strength of community and our relationship to each other and to nature. Both the acrobatic show and film aim to evoke a feeling of hope and optimism in face of the climate crisis, that humans can return to a state of balance, and cooperation with nature and with each other.

The film explores different scenes inspired by the nature around us and the climate crisis we’re now facing; it illustrates both the beauty and potential of humans working in harmony with nature, as well as the uglier, more chaotic conflicts of the crisis, such as the diminishing of resources and livable space on the earth. The goal of the project is not to villainize or patronize humans, rather to celebrate nature and emphasize our inclusion as humans within its ecology, thus demonstrating the oneness of nature and humanity as something beautiful and worth preserving.

Branché is committed to not touring by airplane for environmental reasons and this film project allows us to reach global audiences of all ages while respecting this policy. The film will also allow those who are unable to walk through the forest, due to various physical or social limitations, to feel immersed in nature. We invite the audience to appreciate the importance of the forest and as a result be inspired to protect it.