Robert Daudelin

Daudelin, Robert

Robert Daudelin, film administrator, writer, producer, director (b at West Shefford, Qué 31 May 1939). In 1960 Daudelin and some other Québécois movie lovers repudiated the moralistic Catholic approach that had dominated movie criticism to found a magazine called Objectif; he was its editor in chief until it folded in 1967. During this period he also became involved with the International Film Festival of Montreal, taking on responsibility for the Canadian film section in 1963 and becoming assistant director in 1965. Daudelin published the first monograph on Québec cinema: Vingt Ans de cinéma au Canada français (1967). In 1969 he became the first director-general of the Conseil québécois pour la diffusion du cinéma, establishing its policies and animation program and creating its collection of monographs, "Cinéastes du Québec."

In 1972, he became the director of the CINÉMATHÈQUE QUÉBÉCOISE, a post he still holds. He has supervised the exceptional growth of this institution, the most important in Canada in large part due to the expansion it underwent in 1996. In 1974 he was elected to the board of the International Federation of Film Archives, on which he has filled several posts, including that of president in 1989. He is a board member of several Canadian film organizations. In 1987 he directed for the NATIONAL FILM BOARD a film on American jazz musician Lee Konitz called Konitz: Portrait of the Artist as a Saxophonist.