Richard Brouillette is a film producer, director, editor and programmer. Starting as a film critic for the Montréal weekly, Voir (1989), he then worked for Québec’s top independent distribution company, Cinéma Libre (1989-1999), which has since folded. In 1993, he founded the artist-run center Casa Obscura, a multi-disciplinary exhibition space, where he still runs a weekly cine-club called Les projections libérantes, for which he is also the projectionist.

He produced and directed Too Much Is Enough (doc., 111 min., 1995) for which he has won the prestigious Joan Chalmers Award in 1996; Carpe Diem (essay., 5 min., 1995) and Encirclement – Neo-Liberalism Ensnares Democracy (doc., 160 min., 2008), for which he won six awards including the prestigious Robert and Frances Flaherty Grand Prize of the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival and Grand Prize La Poste Suisse of the 2009 Visions du réel festival. More recently, he produced and directed Prends garde à la douceur des choses (essay, 2 min., 2014) and Oncle Bernard – A Counter-Lesson in Economics (doc., 80 min., 2015) for which he won the La Vague Award for Best Documentary of the 2015 FICFA. He also took part in the collective film St-Henri, the 26th of August (doc., 87 min, 2011).

He has also acted as a line/executive producer on 13 feature length films: Tree with severed branches, by Pascale Ferland (doc., 81 min. 2005), Barbers – A men’s story, by Claude Demers (doc., 82 min., 2006), Les désœuvrés, by René Bail (fiction, 72 min. 1959-2007), Adagio For a Biker, by Pascale Ferland (doc., 90 min., 2008), Les dames en bleu, by Claude Demers (doc., 90 min., 2009), Chantier, by René Bail (doc., 75 min., 1957-2009), The Dispossessed, by Mathieu Roy (doc., 182 min., 2017), which Brouillette has also scripted, The Hidden River, by Jean-François Lesage (doc., 75 min., 2017), Dark Suns, by Julien Elie (doc., 154 min., 2018), Prayer For a Lost Mitten, by Jean-François Lesage (doc, 2020, 79 min.), La guardia blanca, by Julien Elie (doc., 2024, 109 min. – only for the development phase), Atikamekw Suns, by Chloé Leriche (fiction, 2023, 103 min. – only for the postproduction phase), and Among Mountains and Streams, by Jean-François Lesage (doc., 2024, 99 min.). Also, he has acted as a consulting producer on a number of documentary projects, including Far Away Lands, by Félix Lamarche (doc., 2016, 98 min.).

Richard Brouillette has always been very active in Québec’s independent film community, participating in militant actions and devoting himself to the cause of artist-run centers. Since 1993, he has also sat on the Boards of various organizations, including Main Film, from 2002 to 2015. He is currently sitting on the Boards of Tënk Canada, and of l’Amicale de la culture indépendante, the organization that manages Casa Obscura.

In 2014 he won the CALQ Award for best artist of the year in Mauricie.