[ Fig. 01 ] Marc Paradis chez lui, 199?.

Archive Documents

All of the documents presented here were taken from nine perfectly organized archival boxes left by Marc Paradis and loaned to Vidéographe by his family. Their contents give us an opportunity to reconstruct each of Paradis video projects, often down to the slightest detail, from preparatory notes to invoices for the smallest expenses.

The two boxes dedicated to the John Wayne Gacy projects (Polaroid Killer, Le voyage de l'ogre and La nuit fluide), for example, contained books filled with 100s of articles about his crimes, photos ordered from various press offices, different versions of scripts, casting photos (portraits and nudes), funding applications, and an extensive correspondence concerning fundraising. 

We discovered a creative mind at once obsessive and deeply analytical. The line between work and private life was often blurred, and occasionally we came across traces of love, conflict, rupture or resentment; Paradis always had a sharp pen.

The documents selected here are presented by project, as organized by Paradis, and chronologically, where possible. As they are often work-related or private documents, many are neither signed nor dated. They are all in French.

La nuit fluide: presentation of project

Author: Marc Paradis

Taken from a funding application for La nuit fluide, an unrealized feature-length project inspired by the serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

2 p.

La nuit fluide: curriculum vitae

Author: Marc Paradis

Short autobiography taken from a funding application for La nuit fluide, an unrealized feature-length project inspired by the serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

3 p.

La nuit fluide: script (first version)

Authors: Jean-François Garsi and Marc Paradis

Previously unseen script for La nuit fluide, an unrealized feature-length project inspired by the serial killer John Wayne Gacy. A homosexual killer named John Gatis hunts down his young victims at night in Montréal.

43 p.

La nuit fluide: script (second version)

Authors: Marc Paradis and Jacques L. G. Tremblay

Previously unseen script for La nuit fluide, an unrealized feature-length project inspired by the serial killer John Wayne Gacy. A homosexual killer named John Gatis hunts down his young victims at night in Montréal.

24 p.

Groupe du mardi: manifesto (in-house edition)
1982

Authors: Le Groupe du mardi [The Tuesday Group] (Gabriel Beauregard, Daniel Carrière, Eric Duchesne, Sylvain Ladouceur, Benoit Lagrandeur, Yves Lalonde, Marc Paradis)

Collective manifesto on the cultural significance of sexual intercourse between men.

The Tuesday Group was initiated by Paradis. They held discussions about homosexuality and collaborated on creative projects. They wrote a manifesto and a play (Les mardis de Sodomi, sometimes called Requiem pour le prince androgyne or Sodomi et le gars mort), and made a video, La cage (working titles: Anachronique de la vie quotidienne and La cage des mots). Most of the group’s members worked with Paradis on other projects, alone or together, until the beginning of the 1990s.

10 p.

Groupe du mardi: published manifesto
1982

Authors: Le Groupe du mardi (Gabriel Beauregard, Daniel Carrière, Eric Duchesne, Sylvain Ladouceur, Benoit Lagrandeur, Yves Lalonde, Marc Paradis)

Manifesto as published in Trafic in 1982.

1 p.

Groupe du mardi: meeting minutes

Author: Marc Paradis(?)

6 p.

Groupe du mardi: preliminary notes for Requiem pour le prince androgyne

Author: Marc Paradis(?)

Manuscript notes for a play entitled Requiem pour le prince androgyne.

2 p.

Groupe du mardi: notes for a play 1

Author: Marc Paradis(?)

5 p.

Groupe du mardi: notes for a play 2

Author: Marc Paradis(?)

Manuscript notes for a play.

4 p.

Groupe du mardi: notes for a play 3

Author: Marc Paradis(?)

Manuscript notes for a play.

4 p.

Groupe du mardi: Les mardis de Sodomi (play)

Author: Le Groupe du mardi

A play in three acts.

23 p.

La cage: preliminary notes

Author: Marc Paradis

Notes entitled Anachronique de la vie quotidienne.

2 p.

La cage: preliminary notes

Author: Marc Paradis

Manuscript notes entiteld Texte préparatoire vidéo Groupe du M.

2 p.

La cage: filming log

Author: Marc Paradis(?)

Under the title Anachronique de la vie quotidienne en 3/4 La cage des mots (suite).

6 p.

La cage : script

Author: Marc Paradis(?)

Untitled script.

18 p.

Scheme vidéo: video project about Cinéma Parallèle

Authors: Luc Bourdon and Marc Paradis

Presentation of the project that would become Video Scheme. The final result is very different, as the documentary aspect and the interviews with various contributors who gravitated around Cinéma Parallèle at the time were abandoned for a more experimental and allusive approach. 

8 p.

Scheme vidéo: drawing
1983

Author: Kiné(?)

Drawing for what would become Scheme vidéo.

1 p.

Scheme vidéo: titles

Author: Marc Paradis(?)

Different fonts for the title of the video.

2 p.

Scheme vidéo: notes

Author: Marc Paradis

1 p.

Scheme vidéo: storyboard

Storyboard for Scheme vidéo.

6 p.

L'incident « Jones »: production journal

Author: Marc Paradis(?)

Personal notes relating to the making of the video L'incident « Jones ».

21 p.

L'incident « Jones »: various notes

Author: (?)

3 p.

L'incident « Jones »: Simon’s song (lyrics)

Lyrics of a song taken from the video L'incident « Jones ».

Original Score by Marc Paradis, François Senneville and Allan Crossman

1 p.

Harems: script

Authors: Jean Tourangeau and Marc Paradis

Script for the video Harems, released in 1991.

23 p.

Previous section

Next section