MONTREAL – All Videotron services — cable television, video on demand, Internet, cable telephone and Canal VOX — will help showcase the New Montreal Filmfest, beginning today.
As co-presenter and financial backer of the festival, which will run until September 25, 2005, Videotron has prepared a full program of activities to promote the event and let film buffs across the province share in the excitement.
Subscribers to illico digital TV will get a full complement of cinema offerings via VOD, short films, and a selection of films nominated at other prestigious international festivals. From September 22 to 27, in an illico on demand exclusive, subscribers will be able to watch Michel Brault’s 1963 film Pour la suite du monde, the first Quebec film to join the select club of films rated "1" (masterpiece) in the Mediafilm rankings.
Subscribers to Videotron’s High-Speed and Extreme High-Speed Internet services will be able to go to the High-Speed Zone for live red carpet coverage of the festival’s opening and closing ceremonies on September 18 and 25, no matter where they may be. They will be the first on the web to see celebrities arriving at the Theatre St-Denis and making their way up the red carpet to attend the marquee events. Reporter Marc Denoncourt will conduct interviews. In short, Internet star-watchers will get front-row seats.
Fans will be able to chat online with well-known Quebec actor Luc Picard on the High-Speed Zone from noon to 12:45 p.m., September 20. Picard’s first film as a director will premiere that evening at the Festival. He also plays the male lead. Picard will discuss his interests and his directorial debut with fans.
At the Festival site, Videotron will present a classic of Quebec cinema every evening at 8 p.m. from September 18 to 25. The free screenings will be held in the Salle Videotron (on the lower floor of the NMFF headquarters in the old Bibliotheque Saint-Sulpice building).
Cable channel Canal VOX, a service developed and operated by Videotron, will provide regular NMFF coverage with daily reports on filmfest happenings and two special editions of Esprit Libre, the culture show hosted by Marc Denoncourt.
The telecommunications services available to visitors to Festival central in the old Bibliotheque St-Sulpice building will be powered by Videotron, Business Division.
