TODAY IS SUNDAY, TOMORROW WE DIE is the fruit of a two-year shoot. The process involved a laboratory that flirted with experimentation, culminating in a singular, personal work. The ""set writing"" method guided the development of the work.

This approach consists of bringing the score to life during filming, and consolidating the narrative throughout the process. Although drafts of the narrative were written before the shoot began, we were not under the yoke of a totally pre-written script limited by a tight schedule. We had the freedom to shoot chapters, guided by spontaneity, not by a fixed script. Depending on our impulses or the material we needed, we would leave with the same small creative team to pursue this cinematographic laboratory... The medium of the short film was ideal for this kind of exploration. This approach frees us from the tyranny of the screenplay, and gives us uninhibited creative freedom.

A number of collaborators made a fundamental contribution, notably set designer Camille Barrantes, whose approach to artistic direction was in constant motion and in symbiosis with each location and territory explored. She drew inspiration from the different locations to add her own unique touch. Her working method is a cross between live art and visual art.

As for editor Louis Chevalier-Dagenais, his eternal returns to the editing room were punctuated by the images that were added. Our dialogue with him was not just in ""post-production"", but at the very heart of the production. So we shot with the seasons in mind, with the film building up frame by frame, with editing sessions unfolding throughout the process.  

Producer Maria Gracia Turgeon set the course for our exploratory modus operandi, so that a cinematographic work could emerge. This was a necessary step if the film was to take shape, and if the proposal was to be accomplished, mastered and relevant.

As far as the story is concerned, I didn't want to give all the answers about the scourge that befalls these individuals. Rather, I wanted to convey an emotion, a solitude, rather than limit myself to an ""apocalyptic"" genre. The context is fatalistic and the film's environment deleterious, but the desire to infuse it with the flavors of a dream, or even a tale, guided the pulse. I tried to create soft, airy zones, rather than sinking into an anxious, monolithic style. Collaboration with composer Ilyaa Ghafouri was fundamental to achieving this.  

The narration, performed by my mother Marie Falardeau, had to fit in with the ethereal breath of the film. The narrated voice guided the filming, and the images shot matched that voice. It was as if the material shot purified the narration, and so on. A correspondence ensued and continued between these two entities, as they wrote to each other, fleshed each other out and finally met at the very end.

Maxime Genois