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Claude Jutra (; March 11, 1930 – November 5, 1986) was a Canadian actor, film director, and screenwriter. "Claude Jutra" at The Canadian Encyclopedia.
The Prix Jutra, and the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television's Claude Jutra Award, were named in his honour because of his importance in Quebec cinema history. "Claude Jutra's name to be pulled from Quebec film awards" . Ottawa Citizen, February 16, 2016. The awards were renamed in 2016, as were streets named for him, following the publication of allegations that he had sexually abused children during his lifetime. "Quebec Cinema will rename Jutra awards; cities renaming streets". CFCF-DT, February 17, 2016.
He went to work at the National Film Board of Canada in 1956 where he trained in all facets of filmmaking, although his first film for the NFB, Trio-Brio, was permanently lost when the organization moved its head office from Ottawa to Montreal. As a filmmaker, he dropped the s from his surname, a common Québécois surname, because the Jutra spelling was more distinctive. In 1958 he went to France and Africa to work with noted French filmmaker, Jean Rouch.
Claude Jutra's career in film, in a certain sense, paralleled Quebec cinema itself. Beginning as an amateur at a time when there was no Quebec cinema, he participated in (and sometime led) several of the principal developments in Quebec: traditional documentaries and docudramas at the NFB; the germinal period of direct cinema; the first steps in the early 1960s toward independent film production; and later trend toward large-budget features, such as Kamouraska, a box office failure now revealed to be a major work in the canon of Canadian cinema. Overall, his work had a consistent thematic pattern: young people and the (often traumatic) passage from innocence to knowledge, a theme that has nostalgic overtones.
With financing and production provided by the NFB, Jutra co-wrote and directed the 1971 film Mon oncle Antoine, which until very recently has been ranked as the best Canadian movie ever made. As well as directing several cinema vérité shorts such as Wrestling and The Devil's Toy (1966 film), he also co-directed with Norman McLaren and starred in the innovative pixilation Academy Award-nominated short A Chairy Tale.
He was offered the Order of Canada in 1972 but declined because he was a Quebec separatist. "Jutra pedophile allegations rock Quebec film industry". The Globe and Mail, February 15, 2016. In 1984, he was awarded the Prix Albert-Tessier, given to individuals for an outstanding career in Québec cinema.
On February 17, 2016, La Presse published an interview with an alleged victim of Jutra, who requested to remain anonymous, relating sexual abuse from the ages of 6 to 16.Pilon-Larose, Hugo. " "Une victime de Claude Jutra témoigne: des attouchements dès 6 ans". La Presse, February 17, 2016. On the same day, Cinéma Québec removed Jutra's name from their awards following a request from the Minister of Culture of Quebec, Hélène David. "La ministre David demande à Québec Cinéma de se dissocier de Claude Jutra". CBC News, February 17, 2016. To begin the renaming process, she requested the Commission de toponymie (Quebec Toponymy Commission) compile a list of streets and public places in the province bearing Jutra's name. Montreal mayor Denis Coderre additionally announced that the city would remove Jutra's name from streets and parks in its jurisdiction. "Montréal et trois autres villes vont retirer le nom de Claude Jutra de leurs rues et parcs". La Presse, February 17, 2016.
Of the controversy, The Globe and Mail wrote: "Few legendary figures have fallen so quickly and so completely. Merely 24 hours after the official publication of the first explosive allegation of child abuse against the Canadian cinematic pioneer, the film industry and governments started scrubbing the name Claude Jutra from every trophy, park and street."
His collaboration with Michel Brault began at this early period. Mouvement perpétuel was influenced by Jean Cocteau's Le Sang d'un poète. L'École de la peur (1953) was the first television film made in Quebec. Toward the end of the 1950s, he moved to France, and François Truffaut, who became a friend, asked him to direct Anna la Bonne (1959), a Cocteau scenario. In 1960, Jutra returned to Canada.
Genie Awards
Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre used a mix of archival footage of Jutra with animation to create the 2014 short documentary film Jutra. "Another Quebec director at Cannes: Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre with Jutra". Montreal Gazette, April 22, 2014.
Besides the film awards (Claude Jutra Award and Jutra Award), a number of places bear or bore Jutra's name, all found in Quebec: "Claude Jutra had sex with underage boys, new biography alleges". CBC News, February 15, 2016.
Multiple parks and streets later were renamed or scheduled to be renamed after the pederasty allegations in 2016.
Articles
Selected films
As actor
As director
Jutra made his debut as a director with Le dément du lac Jean-Jeunes - it explored themes that remained throughout his work, a nostalgia for childhood, madness, and troubled waters.
Fiction
Documentaries
Awards and nominations
Canadian Film Awards
Film about Claude Jutra
Jutra's close friend, filmmaker Paule Baillargeon, directed the feature documentary Claude Jutra: An Unfinished Story in 2002.
Legacy
George Lucas stated in an interview that he shot the first Star Wars film like a Jutra documentary.
Further reading
Books and thesis
External links
Categories: 1930 Births, 1986 Suicides, 20th-century Canadian Male Actors, Canadian Male Film Actors, Canadian Male Television Actors, French-language Canadian Screenwriters, Film Directors From Montreal, Canadian Lgbtq Film Directors, Canadian Lgbtq Screenwriters, Canadian Gay Actors, Canadian Gay Writers, Male Actors From Montreal, National Film Board Of Canada People, Suicides By Drowning In Canada, Suicides In Quebec, Best Director Genie And Canadian Screen Award Winners, People With Alzheimer's Disease, Prix Albert-tessier Winners, 20th-century Canadian Screenwriters, Screenwriters From Montreal, 1986 Deaths, 20th-century Canadian Lgbtq People, Gay Screenwriters
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