Pierre Perrault

The recorded working language is French. The field of work recorded is literature, film and film production. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are essay. Employment is recorded with National Film Board of Canada. Works named in the authority record are The River Schooners and Pour la suite du monde. Distinctions recorded are Prix Albert-Tessier, Officer of the National Order of Quebec, Governor General's Literary Awards and honorary doctorate at the Laval University.

• Name — Pierre Perrault • Born — 29 June 1927 • Birthplace — Montreal, Quebec, Canada • Died — 23 June 1999 • Place of death — L'Isle-aux-Coudres, Canada • Occupation — Director, producer, writer, poet • Years Active — 1957-1997

Perrault was born and raised in Montreal, the son of a prosperous lumber merchant, and attended the most prestigious private schools in the city. Due to rebellious behaviour, he was expelled from Collège de Montréal, and Collège André-Grasset before graduating from Collège Sainte-Marie de Montréal. While there, with Hubert Aquin and Marcel Dubé, he founded the student journal Cahiers d’Arlequin, in which he published his first play, Pierre en vrac. In 1948, he entered the Université de Montréal Law School, where he was editor of the student journal and won three hockey championships. From there, he studied the history of law at the University of Paris and international law at the University of Toronto. He was called to the bar in 1954 but he had already realized that the law was not his calling.

In 1955, Perrault began writing a weekly radio show at Radio Canada. In 1956, he permanently left the law and began writing for Le chant des hommes, a daily Radio Canada series about folk music. By then, he had married archaeologist Yolande Simard, who was from the Charlevoix region, on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River. In 1956, with French folk singer Jacques Douai, the couple traveled through Charlevoix, interviewing locals and recording their music. These interviews and recordings became the basis of his weekly radio series, Au pays de Neufve-France which, in turn, was the inspiration for a CBC television series of the same name. On that trip through Charlevoix, Perrault had met many artists and artisans, and he pitched the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) on the idea of doing a film about them. The result, Master Artisans of Canada, was Perrault's first film, and it would introduce Perrault to the director, producer and cinematographer Judith Crawley, who handled the English versions of his work for the rest of his career. Crawley and her husband, Budge Crawley owned a film production company which employed the French director René Bonnière. Perrault and Bonnière came up with the idea of turning the Charlevoix interviews and recordings, and the resultant radio show scripts, into documentary shorts. From 1960 to 1963, the two would create 14 films, 13 of which would become the NFB (and CBC) series St. Lawrence North. After his next film for the NFB, the critically acclaimed Pour la suite du monde Perrault became a full-time employee of the NFB in 1965. He went on to create another 16 films, most relating to Quebec's culture, society and environment. He retired in 1996 and died three years later, survived by his wife Yolande Simard Perrault (1928–2019) and their two children.

All National Film Board of Canada • Master Artisans of Canada - documentary short 1957 - co-writer with Judith Crawley • Toutes Isles (All the Islands) - documentary short 1960 - writer, producer, co-director with René Bonnière • St. Lawrence North: Winter Crossing at L'Isle-Aux-Coudres - documentary short 1960 - writer, producer, co-director with René Bonnière • St. Lawrence North: White-Whale Hunters of Anse-Aux-Basques - documentary short 1960 - writer, producer, co-director with René Bonnière • St. Lawrence North: Turlutte - documentary short 1960 - writer, producer, co-director with René Bonnière • St. Lawrence North: Three Seasons - documentary short 1960 - writer, producer, co-director with René Bonnière • St. Lawrence North: Soiree at St. Hilarion - documentary short 1960 - writer, producer, co-director with René Bonnière • St. Lawrence North: On the Sea - documentary short 1960 - writer, producer, co-director with René Bonnière • St. Lawrence North: The Land of Jacques Cartier - documentary short 1960 - writer, producer, co-director with René Bonnière • St. Lawrence North: Ka Ke Ki Ku - documentary short 1960 - writer, producer, co-director with René Bonnière • St. Lawrence North: Canadian Diamonds - documentary short 1960 - writer, producer, co-director with René Bonnière • St. Lawrence North: The Jean Richard - documentary short 1963 - writer, producer, co-director with René Bonnière • St. Lawrence North: Whalehead - documentary short 1963 - writer, producer, co-director with René Bonnière • St. Lawrence North: Attiuk - documentary short 1963 - writer, producer, co-director with René Bonnière • St. Lawrence North: Winter Sealing at La Tabatière - documentary short 1963 - writer, producer, co-director with René Bonnière • Pour la suite du monde (aka For the Ones to Come, For Those Who Will Follow, Of Whales, the Moon, and Men and The Moontrap) - documentary 1963 - co-director with Michel Brault • The Times That Are (Le Règne du jour) - documentary 1967 - director • The River Schooners (Les Voitures d'eau) - documentary short 1968 - writer, co-director with René Bonnière • Beluga Days (aka Le Beau plaisir) - documentary short 1968 -co-director with Michel Brault and Bernard Gosselin • Wake Up, mes bons amis (aka Un Pays sans bon sens) - documentary 1970 - director • Acadia, Acadia (L'Acadie, L'Acadie?!?) - documentary 1971 - co-director with Michel Brault • Tickets s.v.p. - animated short film 1973 - writer and director • Un royaume vous attend (A Kingdom Awaits) - documentary 1976 - director • Le retour à la terre (Return to Earth) - documentary 1976 - director • Le goût de la farine - documentary 1977 - director • Gens d'Abitibi - documentary, 1980 - writer and director • The Shimmering Beast - documentary 1982 - director • Land Without Trees, or the Mouchouânipi - documentary 1983 - director • Les voiles bas et en travers - documentary 1983 - director • La grande allure - documentary (2 parts) 1985 - writer, director • Oumigmag or the Fickle Art of Documentary Filmmaking - documentary short 1993 - director • Icewarrior (aka Cornouailles) - documentary 1996 - writer, director

• Ludger-Duvernay Prize, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society: Laureate (1968) • Honorary Doctorate, Laval University (1986) • Prix Albert-Tessier, Government of Québec (1994) • Honorary Doctorate, Lumière University Lyon 2 (1996) • Honorary Doctorate, Université de Sherbrooke (1997) • Officer, National Order of Québec (1998)

• Grand Jury Prize for Canadian Letters: Portulan, 1961 • Governor General's Literary Award: Au coeur de la rose, 1964 • Governor General's Literary Award: Chouennes: poems, 1961–71, 1975 • Prix Victor-Barbeau, Académie des lettres du Québec: L’oumigmatique ou l’objectif documentaire, 1996 • Governor General's Literary Award: Le Mal du Nord, 1999