Rock Demers was the founder of the film company Les Productions la Fete and produced the Tales for All film series for children.
17 Facts About Rock Demers
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Rock Demers was raised in rural Quebec, and described his childhood as "very poor, but very happy".
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Rock Demers initially studied to become a teacher, before obtaining a diploma in audio-visual technology at the Ecole Normale de St Cloud in Paris.
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Rock Demers then travelled around Europe and Asia for two years, during which he became acquainted with Vojta Jasny, Bretislav Pojar, and Krzysztof Zanussi.
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Rock Demers began with film distribution in 1960, before becoming manager of the Montreal World Film Festival two years later, serving in that capacity until 1967.
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Rock Demers co-established the Cinematheque quebecoise in 1963 and started Faroun Films in 1965.
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Rock Demers left Faroun Films in 1978, one year after being appointed president, and later director general, of the Institut Quebecois du Cinema.
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Rock Demers quit the IQC in June 1979 and went on to create Les Productions la Fete the following year.
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Rock Demers envisioned twelve films and had already commissioned scripts for eight of them prior to the commencement of filming for the first.
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The first film in the series, The Dog Who Stopped the War, was influenced by an article that Rock Demers read in La Presse covering youth suicide.
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Rock Demers sold Productions La Fete to Dominic James in 2015.
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Rock Demers was awarded the Prix Albert-Tessier in 1987 by the government of Quebec.
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Rock Demers was appointed an officer of the Order of Canada in November 1991, before being promoted to companion in May 2007.
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Rock Demers received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts, in 1998.
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Rock Demers was conferred the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, as well as the Giffoni Film Festival's Francois Truffaut Award.
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Rock Demers died shortly after midnight on August 17,2021, at the Montreal Heart Institute.
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Rock Demers was 87, and suffered from heart failure complications prior to his death.