Myryam Bouchard

Graduated in Film Production at Concordia University, Miryam started her career directing more than twenty music videos in less than two years. However, she quickly turned to the television industry and directed her first two TV shows: CHRONIQUES D’UNE VIOLENCE ORDINAIRE, YING YANG - LE CÉLIBAT AND LA GUERRE DES SEXES. She also works as a scriptwriter, among others, for the documentary LES TÊTES À CLAQUES: UNE HISTOIRE UNBELIEVABLE. Her documentaries air on Télé-Québec, SRC, CBC and ARTV.
Thanks to her short films LA CÉRÉMONIE, POUR LE MEILLEUR ET POUR LE PIRE and ROASTBEEF, she goes to all the biggest festivals (more than 70) throughout the world and collects mentions and awards. With her participation in the series FAIS ÇA COURT!, she pens four short films that flirt with romantic comedy, horror and drama. She writes and directs LES CHRONIQUES D’UNE MÈRE INDIGNE, as well as produces and signs the concept of FABRIQUE-MOI UN CONTE, two series that obtain several nominations and recognitions at the Numix Awards, at the de La Rochelle WEBTV Festival and at the Gémeaux Awards.
Miryam Bouchard was recently recognized for her work on M’ENTENDS-TU?, L’ÉCHAPPÉE I, II and III and MON EX À MOI I and II. 

Director’s statement
“My Very Own Circus is a coming of age fiction movie woven around my childhood memories. Everything in it is true and false all at once. For a long time, I thought my childhood was ordinary, that was until I told Martin Forget, the scriptwriter and my accomplice for my first feature film which is not a biography, but rather an allegory.
Younger, I was the announcer at my dad’s show, my dad who was a clown, and a juggler and a magician. Going on tour in a bus converted into a “home” and doing my homework backstage was part of my daily routine. As I grew older, the magic faded, and the spark of the stage became so annoying that the urge for normality took over.
Adolescence and rebellion in a family of clowns can take the form of the perfect report card.
In some ways, Laura’s character is me. And Bill’s character is kind of like my dad. But it’s mainly the dazzling and brilliant Jasmine Lemée and Patrick Huard. Very quickly, Patrick Huard imposed himself in my imagination. He gave himself to this project with so much generosity. My story then mixed with his: he became my muse. Jasmine and Patrick felt free to make these characters their own and my memories became fiction because of them.
At the heart of this film, there’s my desire to invent moments that I would have loved to share with my father, perhaps even that reconciliation that I wish we had before he left too quickly and too soon, to tell him everything I loved about him. Is MY VERY OWN CIRCUS a redemption film? Probably so. But, it’s also the stories of Laura, Bill, Mandeep, Sophie and Justine that all want to be loved and accepted as they are, “different”, and in their marginality or their conformism.
This movie was born from a profound desire that my daughter got to know her grandfather somehow and that she heard me say that I loved him the way he was. It is a work, I hope, filled of realism, but also of magic, of poetry, but also of schoolwork, of poverty and dreams and finally, of the acceptance of others and of filial love.”