Biography
Born in 1968 in Québec City, Jean-Philippe Duval fell in love with movies when he saw Francois Truffaut's "Day for Night" (1973). He decided he needed to be a director and quickly saw his dream come to fruition. His first film was the documentary "La vie a du charme" (1992) about the work of Réjean Ducharme, a Canadian author some compared to J.D. Salinger for his disdain for the spotlight and his stories about the differing worlds of children and adults. The film gave Duval a foothold in the Canadian documentary scene and led to helming a number of documentaries about Québec and its people and culture. "Dédé, à travers les brumes" ("Through the Mist") (2009) proved to be his breakthrough film, telling the tragic story of Dédé Fortin, founder and singer of the famous Québécois band Les Colocs, and the recording of their last album, after which Fortin committed ritual Japanese suicide in 2000. After the critical praise for that film, Duval moved into series TV. He came to the show "Unité 9" (Radio-Canada, 2012-) which followed a young woman, imprisoned for seven years for pushing her father down a flight of stairs, and directed nearly every episode of the show's first four seasons. Duval's next film was "Chasse-Galerie" (2015), based on a beloved Québécois folktale about a deal with the devil and a flying canoe.
