Rock Demers
Rock Demers, was a Canadian film producer. He was the founder of the film company Les Productions la Fête and produced the Tales for All film series for children.
Early life
Demers was born in Sainte-Cécile-de-Lévrard, Quebec, on December 11, 1933. He was raised in rural Quebec, and described his childhood as "very poor, but very happy". He initially studied to become a teacher, before obtaining a diploma in audio-visual technology at the École Normale de St. Cloud in Paris. He then travelled around Europe and Asia for two years, during which he became acquainted with Vojta Jasny, Břetislav Pojar, and Krzysztof Zanussi.Career
After returning to Canada, Demers started his career in the film industry. He began with film distribution in 1960, before becoming manager of the Montreal World Film Festival two years later, serving in that capacity until 1967. He co-established the Cinémathèque québécoise in 1963 and started Faroun Films in 1965. Initially focusing on the distribution of children's films, the latter company eventually expanded to art and experimental film as well as production. Demers left Faroun Films in 1978, one year after being appointed president, and later director general, of the Institut Québécois du Cinéma.Demers quit the IQC in June 1979 and went on to create Les Productions la Fête the following year. Now able to produce his own films, he developed the Tales for All film series. He envisioned twelve films and had already commissioned scripts for eight of them prior to the commencement of filming for the first. The first film in the series, The Dog Who Stopped the War, was influenced by an article that Demers read in La Presse covering youth suicide. The films were eventually co-produced overseas, and translated into other languages. The series released 24 feature films under Demers's leadership, with the last being released in 2014.
Demers sold Productions La Fête to Dominic James in 2015.