Making Movie History: Roger Racine

The term “pioneer” has rarely been so appropriate: Roger Racine was the first francophone cinematographer at the NFB, the first French Canadian to direct photography on a feature film, and a member of the very first TV crew at Radio-Canada. Hired by John Grierson in 1942, Racine would assist cinematographer Boris Kaufman, a newly arrived refugee from occupied France. Noted for his masterful work on Jean Vigo’s L’Atalante (1934), Kaufman would influence Racine’s early work on Le curé du village (1949) and La petite Aurore l’enfant martyre (1951)—feature films released during the ultra-conservative Duplessis years. Racine worked as a director at Radio-Canada from 1952 to 1964, and went on to found his own production company, Cinéfilms, now run by his son Christian.