Restored films available at all times
Éléphant: The memory of Quebec cinema is the brainchild of Pierre Karl Péladeau, a lover of the arts like his father. The idea was to give the movies that have left their mark on Québec culture and history a new lease on life. This large-scale project to digitize and restore Québec’s heritage of feature films and make them accessible was launched in 2008. Since then, the project has grown steadily and has been attracting international attention.
Éléphant today:
- Nearly 225 films restored and digitized in HD.
- Restored movies available at all times on Videotron's illico video-on-demand service (channel 900), illico.tv and the illico app
- The films are also offered on iTunes in Canada, the US and all countries where French or English is an official language
Éléphant is part of our commitment to promoting Québec art and keeping our cultural heritage alive and accessible. Since it began, we have made an investment worth a total of more than $22 million in the project. Aside from a small amount to cover a portion of the platform’s operating costs, all revenues from distribution of the movies go to the filmmakers and rights holders.
(video only available in French)
Website for film buffs
The Éléphant website, with its wealth of information on Québec movies, is an indispensable reference source on the subject. It is a veritable gold mine of exclusive entertaining and educational content on Québec cinema, including more than 1,300 movie fact sheets, trailers, more than 300 exclusive interviews with Québec movie people, Québec movie news and updates on the project’s progress.
Movies on the big screen all year long
In addition to regularly screening restored feature films at major Québec film events, Éléphant has partnered with two major cultural institutions, the Cinémathèque québécoise in Montréal and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec in Québec City, to show the films. Every month, Éléphant sur grand écran gives audiences a chance to experience the movies the way they were meant to be seen and to discover, or rediscover, the masterpieces of Québec cinema.
Internationally recognized expertise
Éléphant has quickly become known around the world as a player in the restoration and dissemination of heritage films. Movies restored by Éléphant have been screened at prestigious international festivals including Cannes, Lyon and New York. The restoration work was initially done by Technicolor Creative Services; today, the films are processed by MELS, which has rare expertise in the field. The work is carried out under the supervision of Éléphant codirectors Marie-José Raymond and Claude Fournier.
