Les Filles du Roi

1665. Louis XIV has seen fit to send a gift to the New World: surplus women to bring succor and support to French settlers in what is now Quebec. Among them is Marie-Jeanne (Julie McIsaac), who immediately falls foul of the matronly Madame Savoie (Claire Johnstone) by making nice with a native Mohawk trader, Jean-Baptiste (Raes Calvert), and his naive young sister Kateri (Kaitlyn Yott).

A full-blown micro-budget musical, adapted from their own stage production by Urban Ink’s Corey Payette with co-writer McIsaac, Les Filles du Roi shuttles expeditiously between French, English and Mohawk; between song and speech; and between a handful of real world locations and theatrical artifice. It probably shouldn’t work but what carries it is Payette’s knack for crafting rousing and melancholy melodies, sterling singing across the entire cast, and a utopian vision of cross-cultural reciprocity to counterbalance history’s harsher narrative.

Julie McIsaac and I started working on this story 10 years ago, and we truly never imagined that it would have the kind of life that it has had. We dreamed of feminizing and Indigenizing the narrative of Canada. It feels like the story starts in 1665 and ends today. We are still in this history.

Corey Payette, Guest Curator

Jun 21: Intro by writer-director Corey Payette; Q&A with actor Julie McIsaac; moderated by the film’s editor Christian Díaz Durán

Jun 22: Q&A with writer-director Corey Payette; moderated by the film’s editor Christian Díaz Durán

Free admission to Indigenous-identifying patrons