Martin Frigon

Biography

Martin Frigon’s first documentaries were inspired by the people and the vast maritime landscape of Gaspésie, in Eastern Quebec, where he grew up. He applied the cinéma vérité style he learned as a film student to document the rich and colourful lives and language of the fishers in his film Dying at sea (2003), and of miners left stranded by the multinational Noranda in Make Money, Salut, bonsoir! (2004). Using documentary form, Martin gives a voice to the forgotten people of impoverished resource-based communities of Gaspésie, remarkable people who speak out about their hopes and desires for a better future. With Mirage of El Dorado (2008), he continues this approach in the southern hemisphere with a disturbing film about the behaviour of Canadian mining companies abroad. In his latest feature, The Great Invasion (2012), he continues to look at the future of regions and territory, but this time through the prism of overdevelopment. Martin Frigon is not only a documentary filmmaker, but also a passionate writer, and social and history critic. His first book Contes, légendes et récits de l’Outaouais (Tales, legends and stories from the Ottawa Valley) was recently published by Éditions Trois-Pistoles.