Child-sex allegations lead Quebec film awards to change their name
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 18 February, 2016, 1:01pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 18 February, 2016, 1:01pm
Associated Press in Montreal
Claude Jutra, pictured in 1984 during the filming of “La Dame en coleurs”. Photo: Cinematique Québecoise
Quebec’s film industry has removed the name of an alleged pedophile from the title of its annual awards show.
Quebec Cinema announced the decision Wednesday after the French-speaking province’s culture minister asked the organisation to consider removing Claude Jutra’s name.
A biography released this week said Jutra sexually abused young boys, while Montreal La Presse quoted a man Wednesday as saying the late filmmaker began touching him when he was six years old and that the abuse escalated over a 10-year period.
“The testimony we read in La Presse was definitely a trigger in our decision,” Patrick Roy, head of Quebec Cinema’s board of directors, told a news conference. “I don’t feel like questioning the veracity of the account. It strikes me as very credible and it really shook me.”
The film director committed suicide in 1986 after battling Alzheimer’s disease. The Jutra Awards have been named after him for nearly 20 years.
His work included Mon oncle Antoine and Kamouraska.
Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said the city would move to withdraw Jutra’s name from a downtown park as well as from a street in an east-end borough. Quebec City and Levis, Quebec also intend to rename the Claude-Jutra Street in their respective cities.
