Claude Demers

Claude Demers (born March 10, 1962) is a Canadian filmmaker from Montreal, Quebec.^[1] He is most noted for his series of documentary films that were indirectly inspired by, or directly about, his experiences as an adoptee.

The birth son of an Italian Canadian father and a québécois mother, he was placed for adoption in infancy.

He directed a number of short films before releasing his feature debut, The Invention of Love (L'Invention de l'amour), in 2000.^[2] He began his foray into documentary films inspired by his birth heritage in 2006 with Barbers: A Men's Story (Barbiers, Une histoire d'hommes), a film about the culture of Italian Canadian barbers in Montreal;^[3] he followed up in 2009 with Ladies in Blue (Les dames en bleu), a film about women of his birth mother's generation who idolized pop chansonnier Michel Louvain.^[4]

Where I'm From (D'ou je viens), released in 2014, began a series of much more personal films that more directly confronted his own experiences as an adoptee.^[5] This series continued in 2019 with A Woman, My Mother (Une femme, ma mère), which addressed some of the unanswered questions he still had about his birth mother's life,^[6] and in 2024 with Diary of a Father (Journal d'un père), which addressed the impact of both his birth and adoptive fathers on his own sense of fatherhood as parent to a daughter he cannot see as often as he would like, as she lives in another country with her mother.^[7]

Filmography

• The Invention of Love (L'Invention de l'amour) - 2000
• Barbers: A Men's Story (Barbiers, Une histoire d'hommes) - 2006
• Ladies in Blue (Les dames en bleu) - 2009
• Where I'm From (D'ou je viens) - 2014
• My Last Summer (Mon dernier été) - 2016
• A Woman, My Mother (Une femme, ma mère) - 2019
• Diary of a Father (Journal d'un père) - 2023

Awards

Award	Year	Category	Work	Result	Ref(s)
Genie Awards/Canadian Screen Awards	2010	Best Feature Length Documentary	Ladies in Blue (Les dames en bleu)	Nominated	[8]
	2021		A Woman, My Mother (Une femme, ma mère)	Nominated	[9]
	2025	Best Cinematography in a Documentary	Diary of a Father (Journal d'un père) with Olivier Tétreault, François Messier-Rheault	Nominated	[10]
Festival international du cinéma francophone en Acadie	2016	Best Canadian Short Film	My Last Summer (Mon dernier été)	Won
Montreal International Documentary Festival	2019	Grand Prize, National Feature	A Woman, My Mother (Une femme, ma mère)	Won	[11]