Absences

Carole Laganière dives deeply into personal territory in this beautifully crafted exploration of absence and loss and its painful effect on daily lives. Inspired by her mother’s steadily advancing Alzheimer’s and the inevitability of her estrangement, Laganière weaves their story with the stories of others wrestling with loss: Ines, an immigrant who returns to her birth country of Croatia to find the mother who abandoned her during the war; Deni, an American author who’s finally able to search for his Quebec roots; and Nathalie, who’s desperately looking for her missing sister. Through their experiences the film ponders how absence is often the catalyst for a quest—a quest for information, understanding and often acceptance. Through its many voices, Absences speaks to us of the immense fragility and resiliency of human emotions.

Cast

Colette Sauvageau

Self

Deni Yvan Béchard

Self

Nathalie Bergeron

Self

Ines Hajrovic

Self

Yvonne Duguay

Self

Marcel Dumesnil

Self

Zekija Hajrovic

Self

Robert Hendrickson

Self

Laurette Sauvageau

Self

Crew

Carole Laganière

Director

François Vincelette

Additional Camera

Luc Sicard

Original Music Composer

Perrine Bral

Production Assistant

Chris Niesing

Production Assistant

Mélanie Gauthier

Location Sound Recordist

Myriam Berthelet

Researcher

Carole Laganière

Additional Camera

Olga Maticevic

Production Assistant

Richard Lavoie

Location Sound Recordist