SHORT FICTION | 13’ | CANADÁ | 2023
DIRECTOR Y SCREENWRITER: Stéphanie Bélanger
CAST: Carmen Sylvestre, Caroline Bélanger, Benoît Arcand
PREMIERE: Spain
SYNOPSIS
It has been raining heavily for months and the sixth wave is depressing humanity. In this prevailing darkness, Claude, 70 years old, compulsively buys lamps online to break his solitude and bring light into his life, at any cost. This project was born in the depths of November 2020, as humanity was experiencing the challenges of a global pandemic and mandatory confinement. It is with a hint of embarrassment that I must confess that the story of Lumen mirrors my own experience. I was that almost compulsive lamp buyer trying to illuminate my small apartment, the one who was outbid by someone else for a lampshade, and the one who was genuinely upset about it. “My dear, if you get so worked up over a lamp, it indicates there’s not much happening in your life.” The absurdity of the situation was so evident that with some reflection, I realized it was a good starting point for a short film: to talk about isolation, the pervasive gloom, and the irrationality stemming from living within silent walls and longing for a breath of fresh air that never comes. All this, by invoking light in its most mundane form and setting the story from the perspective of an elderly person, of whom, sadly, there are many for whom the television or computer is the only companion in their confined solitude.
FESTIVALS :
- Palm Springs Short Film Festival – 2024
- Nevada City Film Festival – 2024
BIO DIRECTOR
After immersing herself in the Parisian audiovisual industry for a decade, Stéphanie Bélanger returned to her Quebecois roots to pursue a comprehensive screenwriting education at L’inis. With an enduring passion for words, she adeptly traverses the spectrum from absurd humor to gripping drama, skillfully manipulating the intricacies of the human experience and drawing forth its beauty from within its vulnerabilities. Amidst a diverse array of audiovisual and literary projects, she makes her directorial debut with Lumen, a pandemic-inspired project that delves into the solitary enclave of a tech-savvy septuagenarian, tethered to her computer as if it were a lifeline.CORT