Louise Jobin

Louise Jobin

Louise Jobin, costume designer, art director and producer (born Montréal 29 Sep 1944) Louise Jobin's passion for literature and history led to the theatre in 1963, when she manipulated marionettes with Micheline Legendre, a true pioneer in the field. A decisive meeting with Michel TREMBLAY and André BRASSARD followed, and Jobin became the costume designer for more than thirty plays (1964-1970), most directed by the latter. In 1966, Louise Jobin made her television début on Radio-Canada when she assisted Gilles-André Vaillancourt in designing period costumes for the Québec historical series D'Iberville (1966-1968). This launched an amazing career that brought her unequalled success and recognition.

Film and television

Jobin's career in cinematography began in 1970 under the mentorship of François BARBEAU when she became his assistant on the film Eliza's Horoscope (dir. Gordon Sheppard). The following year found her in charge of costume design for the film La course du lièvre à travers les champs, by René Clément. Work on 35 other films followed, on which the designer's outstanding talent made their mark. Of particular note were her collaborations with François Barbeau in Claude JUTRA's Kamouraska and Gilles CARLE's Les corps célestes. She then designed the costumes for a number of well-known major films, among them Joshua, Then and Now, directed by Ted KOTCHEFF, Les Ordres (Michel BRAULT), J.A. Martin photographe, Being at home with Claude and Cordélia (Jean BEAUDIN), À corps perdu (Léa POOL), Onzième spéciale (Micheline LANCTÔT), Jésus de Montréal (Denys ARCAND) and Les vautours, L'Affaire Coffin and Bonjour monsieur Gauguin (Jean-Claude Labrecque). In 1980, during the shooting of Gilles Carle's film, Les Plouffe, Louise Jobin was charged with making the costumes for some 5,500 supernumeraries who appeared in the crowd scenes.

Jobin's prolific career then led to production design when she worked on the visual design for several full length features, television films and TV series. For André MELANÇON, among others she was the art director for Ces enfants venus d'ailleurs (1998) and Asbestos (2000); for Pierre Gang, Further Tales of the City, En thérapie; for Alain CHARTRAND, Les grands procès II, Ding et Dong, le film, Des amis pour la vie. Louise Jobin has used her production expertise on shows, drama series, documentaries and full length features.

Other

Louise Jobin has remained actively involved in the arts community. In 1972, with François Barbeau and François Laplante, she founded the L'Atelier de costumes BJL, which she managed on a voluntary basis, and which in 1994 became the not-for- profit Centre national du costume. It closed its doors in 2006.

Concerned with working conditions for artisans behind the scenes Louise Jobin has put a lot of effort into recognizing the rights of cinema technicians. As a trade union president and spokesperson (AQTIS, Alliance québécoise des techniciens de l'image et du son) she was at the negotiating table with the APFTQ (Association des producteurs de films et de télévision du Québec) at the first collective convention in 1976, then in 1990-1991, as Vice-president and spokesperson negotiating with the APFTQ (Green Convention).

She has sat on a number of boards including for Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois, INIS, and the National Board for the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. She has also been a jury member for Genie and Gémeaux awards and is chair of the FCTNM (Femmes du cinéma, de la télévision et des nouveaux medias/Women in film, television and new media). Louise Jobin is a teacher at the National Theatre School and a script analyst for the Harold Greenberg Fund.

Honours and awards

Louise Jobin has been recognized by her peers for her creativity and expertise, and has earned several prestigious awards. In 2001, the FCTNM paid her tribute for her body of work. She has won GEMINI AWARDS for best art direction for Ces enfants d'ailleurs II (1999) and L'Ombre de l'épervier I (1998); GÉNIE AWARDS for best costumes in Jésus de Montréal (1990), Joshua Then and Now (1986), Cordélia (1980), and a Gemini (1987) for Ford, the Man and the Machine.