Archipelago

Archipelago is a Canadian animated documentary film, directed by Félix Dufour-Laperrière and released in 2021. A poetic essay film that blends diverse styles of animation, the film is a psychogeographic meditation on the islands in the St. Lawrence River, forming a metaphor for Quebec's status as an "uncertain country" defined by the tensions between its status as a province of Canada and the Québécois people's conception of themselves as a distinct nation. The film is narrated principally by Florence Blain Mbaye and Mattis Savard-Verhoeven, with a shorter narration by Joséphine Bacon of one of her own poems in Innu-aimun. The animation team included Malcolm Sutherland, Philip Lockerby, Jens Hahn, and Eva Cvijanović. The film premiered in February 2021 at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and had its Canadian premiere at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in April. It was released commercially on October 19. Awards The film won a jury prize at the 2021 Annecy International Animation Film Festival.