Robert Morin

Morin, Robert

Robert Morin, producer (b at Montréal 20 May 1949). Trained in communications and literature, Morin was involved in founding a video cooperative in 1977, Coop Vidéo de Montréal. There, often with Lorraine Dufour as co-producer, he shot the majority of his work. He established himself as a major Québec video artist with Le Voleur vit en enfer, perceived as his significant work of the early eighties. Two full-length features assured his reputation: Tristesse modèle réduit (1989) and La Réception (1989). He switched to film with Requiem pour un beau sans-cœur/Requiem for a Handsome Bastard (1992), a shocking crime drama forming a call for freedom, and Windigo (1994), a reflection on the national aspirations of whites and First Nations people. He returned to the flexibility of video with Yes Sir! Madame... (1995), describing a bilingual character's shattered identity, then Quiconque meurt, meurt à douleur/Whoever dies, dies in pain (1998), again turning away from the suspense of genre cinema, to treat the social issues of drugs and violence in an innovative manner. Morin presented films and videos of a personal nature, distinguished by their choice of inner social subjects and often marginal characters. His works are both popular and experimental.