Montréal Pride: Filming an Energy That Brings People Together

Filming Montréal Pride means following an event that exists on several scales. There are the stage, the artists and the large movements of crowds. There are also gestures, glances and encounters that tell the festival’s story at a human level. I like to place my camera between those two dimensions.

This collaboration spans several periods of my career. In 2016, a shoot with Tourisme Montréal was intended to supply a video promoting Canada Pride in 2017. Conversations with Lynn Habel and Amélie then accompanied the edit. Images of one event could open a door to the next and make people want to experience Montréal.

I found that energy again in my more recent collaborations with Montréal Pride, particularly in 2023 and 2024. With Samuel Desrosiers and the content team, preparation involved schedules and footage needs. During the festival, those reference points evolved according to what had already been covered and what remained to capture.

At an event of this scale, preparation gives attention a direction. It helps us see different locations, installations, life on site and performance moments as parts of one experience. The camera then has to remain available for what happens: an audience reaction or a movement on stage cannot simply be repeated for us.

In 2024, conversations around the ImmiX show highlighted the importance of the site and its different spaces in the footage to bring back. I like that idea of looking beyond the act being performed. A festival is also told through how people occupy a place and gather around what happens there.

On camera, colours and stage lighting create powerful visual material. The work is to follow that energy while maintaining clear framing and a human presence. Moving from a wide shot to a detail can change how a performance feels and bring the viewer closer to what people on site are experiencing.

What I take from Montréal Pride is that continuity between years and encounters. Needs change, spaces transform and ways of sharing images evolve. But the desire stays the same: to create images that preserve a living record of the event and the collective energy behind it.