Bois de Balzac, Le

“Since 1973, the filmmaker had made pilgrimages to Queen’s Park in the heart of Toronto to film a certain tree. With this collection of footage he produced ‘Le Bois de Balzac’ – completed in 1981. The entire film literally ‘revolves’ around the tree which becomes transformed and imbued with character and meaning. At times the tree is a mythological being and at others, an object of meditation. At one point it resembles the Rodin sculpture of the writer Balzac. The space surrounding it expands through the soundtrack to distant places on the globe, and the single tree in the park becomes the touchstone for a journey of the imagination.” – Anna Gronau