And it wasn’t short, our film was 84 minutes long! Valerie Lalonde and I were working together and videoing together and living together. That is the best way I know of to make movies. But we still needed the support of TV. The cameras were cheap, the tapes were cheap, but when it came to editing to go on the air we had to transfer our tapes to BETA-SP and edit on Beta machines at enormous expense, literally thousands of dollars per day in rental fees and all those buttons to push! So we had our friend and collaborator Vincent Blanchet working with us using our VHS edit as the guide. The guys that delivered the equipment to us were amazed at our pokey little apartment. They were accustomed to delivering to rich venues, National sporting events and the like. They sympathized with us and, when the time came to return the equipment, they always came as late as they could to pick it up. Valerie tried to schedule our rentals just before a National Holiday so that we would get an extra day before the men came by to pick it up… That way, we were able to master and mix our not-made-for-TV efforts.

Les Oeufs a la Coque went on the air in prime time on Channel 3 and got mixed but interesting reviews. It was then shown several times on La Sept, which was the start of the Arte program. When we sent it to the Festival du Reel, in Paris, it was rejected. “Documentaries should deal with social problems” said the gatekeeper. Likewise at the Film Forum in New York. But it was shown at the New York Film Festival (on the eve of Yom Kippur) to a remarkably receptive audience. What is it about? The joys and oddities of normal life? What it’s like to be around? For me, it is made up of incidents that I want to share with my friends and other like-minded people… not millions … maybe thousands!