Denis Côté at RIDM

Denis Côté at RIDM
by Ralph Lucas – Publisher

(November 16, 2023 – Toronto, ON) When Denis Côté’s feature Mademoiselle Kenopsia screened at TIFF, our Québec correspondent, Maurie Alioff, was in town and opened his review of the film by mentioning Coté didn’t make the festival, where he had been a regular, because he was recovering from a kidney transplant. Introducing the movie via video, he said this film is more about atmosphere than narrative, but Maurie thought that wasn’t entirely true.

Mademoiselle Kenopsia tells the story of a woman who becomes obsessed with watching over anonymous interior spaces and occupying them. Maurie concluded his review with “Whatever is real or unreal in Denis Côté’s movie, it embeds itself in your consciousness, a mind-altering meditation. You close your eyes for a second, and you see your own spaces and phantoms.”

Now fully recovered, Côté will be in attendance when Mademoiselle Kenopsia will be presented to Quebec audiences for the first time during the 26th edition of the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) next Tuesday, November 21 at the Cinémathèque québécoise.


Screening as a special presentation, the film will be accompanied by a masterclass by Côté, who will share his outlook on cinema. This is almost guarateed to spark a genuine reflection on the possibilities of a cinematic form that disregards boundaries and labels. Hosted by Nadine Gomez, this masterclass will be free of charge. And, there’s more. 

Côté, who is celebrating a birthday today, will be honoured by the Association des réalisateurs et réalisatrices du Québec (ARRQ), and will be given a lifetime achievement award as part of this year’s Prix RÉALS.

Produced by Voyelles Films and distributed by h264, Mademoiselle Kenopsia is set for theatrical release in Québec on December 8.

Click here for a link to RIDM.

Ralph Lucas is a former broadcast executive and award-winning director in high-end corporate video production. The founder and publisher of Northernstars.ca, online since 1998, he began writing about film and reviewing movies while in radio in Montreal in the mid-1970s.