Marie-Lou is pursuing her dream and passion as a short-film maker and as a worker at our institution. Who would ever have thought that this bright, 31-year-old woman had a chaotic childhood, regularly changing schools and regions with a father who could not take proper care of her?
When she was 12, her school filed a report and she was placed in foster care. She discovered routines, good meals, and the presence of adults who gave her life structure. She herself asked to remain in foster care. Marie-Lou was placed with several families and then at a foster home in Drummondville before becoming independent. She says that she used to be like a feral cat, inward-looking and no longer trusting adults. She used to run away, an act that gave her a false sense of freedom. A worker broke through her shell and she started trusting others and herself again.
Her perseverance was rewarded.
Marie-Lou enrolled in CEGEP to become a specialized educator and to give back to children, to offer them hope. While studying, her newfound interest in the camera grew and, once she graduated, she began applying her passion to her work with preteens at Centre jeunesse de l’Estrie.
Her short, socially themed documentaries attracted attention at movie festivals throughout the world. Her short doc, 24 h, on medical assistance in dying, even won an award at the 2017 Festival Cinéma du monde de Sherbrooke. La Grosse Classe, inspired by a poem by David Goudreault, covers the school system, and her latest, Santé!, asks how an elderly couple can stay united in spite of disease. Marie-Lou was awarded the 2018 Mérite Estrien in the artistic category.
Even if the producer no longer works with the youth clientele, she calls upon workers at the Val-du-Lac service point to get youth to participate in her shoots, which may even trigger their own passion.
"My cause is youth and teenagers. I want to show them that everything is possible when you're passionate about something," she said.
To see Marie-Lou's short documentaries:
