"Seventh and last child of seven, Jacques Dufresne was born on the seventh of the seventh month, in the back of a taxi in Quebec city - truly a birth worthy of the septieeme art! At the age of seven, he started his first photo studio… During the 70's and at the height of the October Crisis in the province of Quebec, he came into possession of his first Nikon and, not long after, he became a freelance photographer for the Canadian Press, followed by a stint with Quebec newspaper L'Action. His first assignment: to photograph a filmmaker staying at the Chateau Frontenac, in Quebec. The visiting photographer was none other than Louis Malle. Time passed, contracts came, exhibitions as well, and so did prizes and awards..."
(from the exhibition's catalogue)

In 1983 Jacques Dufresne started his collaboration with the Montreal based Festival of New Films / New Media, founded and co-directed with Claude Camberlain by Dimitri Eipides, the artistic director of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival - Images of the 21st Century. For years, Jacques Dufresne took portraits of the Festival's visiting talent. Jean Luc Godard, Wim Wenders, Atom Egoyan, Jim Jarmoush, Claire Dennis, Theo Angelopoulos and many others, representatives of the most fiercely independent cinema of the world, have stood in front of his lense. The result is a living, breathing recording of contemporary cinema and its protagonists, given through a series of photographs, which, according to Wim Wenders' words, "present a very unique view of the history of cinema over the last 30 years".

With the celebration of the 30 years anniversary since the creation of the Montreal Festival of New Films / New Media, the portraits by Jacques Dufresne were compiled into a unique exhibition, which is now brought over to Greece and the 4th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival - Images of the 21st Century.