Isabelle Lavigne studied communications at Université du Québec à Montréal. Her first film, J.U.I.C.E., won several awards (Norman McLaren Prize and the grand prix Kodak Canada at the Student Film and Video Festival in Montreal). After finishing her studies, she went to Nunavik, where she directed two documentary films: Drawing a Thought and Sama's Graduation. In 2001, she wrote and directed Le 4125, rue Parthenais (Colin Low Award for best documentary at the Doxa Documentary Festival in Vancouver and nominated for the best documentary category at the 2002 Jutra awards). In 2007, she directed the documentary Junior, which won The Best documentary award both at Toronto Hot Doc's Festival (2008) and at Le Gala des Prix Gémeaux in Québec (2009).