–Who is Christopher Prud’homme?
I am a 24 years old film director and movie lover from Montreal who aims to explore genre films with a subtle and poetic approach.
In 2020, after more than 4 years in the world of special effects, I decided to quit my young career in order to pursue my real passion for directing. I buried this dream of mine behind my introverted self for years, knowing right from the beginning that I needed to express myself way more than I could do in the conformist VFX world.
I then followed, still in 2020, a formation on the technical aspects of cinema before directing my first short PIG IN A CAGE to test the waters, to see if I was really doing the right move. I realized at this exact moment what I wanted to do. After this short, I got admitted in a university film production program, which I quickly left to focus on my upcoming contracts and own films.
Fast-forward to 2022, I crafted VIDI, my second short and this is the film that gave me the opportunity to do this interview.
–What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
As far as I can remember, cinema has been part of my daily life. As a kid, I remember the movie collection at home, the video-club on Friday nights & the many evening out to the theatre. This is the cliché answer, but it’s true. As I grew older, all these elements became more and more important to me. The movies that I found interesting became increasingly sophisticated, the video-club nights out were not only on Fridays anymore, and the nearest movie theatre became literally my home on the weekends. This passion never stopped to grow, and today I can’t imagine myself without art, without cinema.
–Do you think the cinema can bring a change in the society?
Absolutely!
Cinema shaped my own perception of the world, so I have absolutely no doubt about the power of this art form. Movies give us a chance to reflect on relatable subject such as our own lives and the lives of others, while also having the incredible capacity to let us explore new worlds and to step out of our reality momentarily. That last argument resonates strongly with me since movies have always been a refuge for me in my dark times and have allowed me to find a strong passion which today becomes my job. With cinema having as many layers at the same time combined with the fact that literally everyone watches movies, its power to change society it is an evidence to me!
–What would you change in the world?
If we let alone our rich occidental problems out of the equation for once, I’d say I’d like to change major things that seem to be increasingly out of the media these days. At the time of this interview, all we hear about is that billionaire submarine trip to the Titanic that turned out deadly. I’d say that people dying of having no access to drinkable water or literal genocides in multiple countries are far more concerning than this billionaire ego-trip or the fact that Elon Musk bought Twitter. My major change would be to switch people conceptions of what’s important in life, it’s not normal that people are focusing more on sending death threats to drag queens all over the world than what’s in their kids plates.
In other words, my change would be for people to focus on the right issues and to put into perspective their problems.
–Where do you see the film industry going in the next 100 years?
I think that the war between art house cinema and big studios will still be very present in 100 years. I think that artistic cinema will remain important in our industry since, obviously, the big studios will look dumber and dumber with their idiotic scenarios and artificial intelligence to replace the real talents. Which scares me because people seem to be very fond of the idea of going to the theatre to see the same story on repeat, all generated by robots made to collect their money.
