Maurice Proulx

Proulx, Maurice

 Maurice Proulx, priest, filmmaker (b at St-Pierre-de-Montmagny, Qué 13 Apr 1902; d at La Pocatière, Qué 7 June 1988). Born into a farming family, he entered Séminaire de Québec in 1924 and was ordained in 1928. Though trained in agronomy after his ordination, Proulx developed an interest in filmmaking and used it to record the colonization of the Abitibi and other regions of Québec in the 1930s. His most famous film, the feature-length En pays neuf (1934-37), offers an extraordinary testament to the settlement of the Abitibi area, but he also made 36 other films for the provincial government and for industry between 1934 and 1961, mostly on agriculture, tourism and religion. He retired in 1966. His films were acquired for preservation by the Québec government in 1977.