JOHANNE
The film tells the unusual and surprising story of a little girl once abandoned at the gates of an orphanage, who grew up to be the first black model in North America.
Johanne
A documentary by Nadine Valcin
Producers: Ania Jamila and Josiane Blanc
Executive Producer: Yves Bisaillon
Immigration and the presence of racialized people in our society are often depicted as recent phenomena. The feature-length documentary Johanne debunks this myth by portraying a woman of African descent with a varied and unusual trajectory, while closely examining the current experience of Black women in North America.
The film tells the unusual and surprising story of a little girl once abandoned at the gates of an orphanage, who grew up to be the first black model in North America, a muse, an actress and the partner of French sociologist Edgar Morin. Although she has had little public recognition, Johanne Harrelle is an important figure in light of the many doors she was the first to open in the 1950s and 60s. The documentary will depict the complex journey of this multi-faceted woman, through a narrative structure designed to reflect her contradictions and many dimensions as she constantly resisted society's attempts to categorize her. Scenes depicting different episodes in Johanne’s life, through their juxtaposed narrative arcs, will highlight the richness of her story.
Each scene will be introduced with a quote from Johanne or someone close to her. Where radio interviews are available, we will hear her own voice. Other quotes, sourced from published works or her own writing, will be read out by five prominent black women of different generations, who feel greatly indebted to women like Johanne who came before them. The voices of these women, who will include celebrated actresses, dancers, activists and politicians, will echo Johanne's own voice and add a contemporary perspective to her experience. These performances will be filmed and will provide a foundation for discussions about how these narrators perceive Johanne's life, but also about the parallels they see with their own experience in Canada, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France, etc.
Joan Harrell was born in Montreal in 1930, to an African-American father from Texas and a Quebecois mother, who ran a laundry on the Plateau Mont-Royal. After her father died when she was only two years old, and her mother fell seriously ill, the young Joan was taken into care in 1933.
Johanne Harrelle is the name the nuns gave her on arrival. She stayed there for three years before moving to an orphanage, where she remained until she was placed in a corrections facility for young girls in 1945, after several attempts to have her adopted had failed.
Upon reaching adulthood, she assumed the identity of a Haitian woman who had come to study at the Université de Montréal, both to erase her childhood and to explain the colour of her skin and her presence in Quebec. She gave birth to two sons: Valentino (Val) Harrelle in 1949, who she raised, and Alain Cadieux in 1951, who she gave up for adoption but was later reunited with.
Johanne was married to a Hungarian immigrant when, in 1956, she began a love affair with Claude Jutra, which was the inspiration for the film À Tout Prendre (Take it All). At the start of the 1960s, under the mentorship of Iona Monahan, a legendary figure in the fashion world, Johanne was known for her graceful beauty and became the first black model in North America. As a muse for the Quebecois designer Michel Robichaud, she took part in fashion shows throughout the country, then in London and Paris, where she worked for some of the greatest couturiers of the time.
In 1972, she married the renowned French sociologist Edgar Morin, who she had known for seven years. The couple were immersed in artistic and intellectual circles, alongside Jean Rouch, Roland Barthes and Marguerite Duras, to name but a few. In his book California Journal, Morin said of his second wife, “Johanne is the comet of love carrying us all on its tail. She is a great communicator, drawn to each person and wanting to know them, open them up and dive into them.”
In 1980, Johanne returned to Montreal following her divorce and published an autobiography, Une leçon. During her acting career, she occasionally performed on stage and had minor television roles, including as the mother of Normand Brathwaite’s character in Chez Denise, but she found few opportunities to showcase her talent. She openly discussed her disappointments and the lack of roles for Black actresses with Michaëlle Jean (General Governor of Canada), in the documentary Tropique Nord. In this testimony, only months before she died of breast cancer in 1994, she expressed the same demands for inclusion that racialized actors and actresses are still making today.
Far from being a purely historical documentary, Johanne will be firmly anchored in the present. With the help of the narrators, the past will be used as jumping point to talk about the contemporary reality for black women and Johanne Harrelle’s the little-known legacy. At the core of the documentary will be an important discussion that needs to occur about the struggles by racialized people to be seen, heard and fully included in our society.
“Everything I give is for show. Not many people have access to my back store.”
— Johanne Harrelle
NADINE VALCIN Demo Reel
Nadine Valcin is an award-winning bilingual producer, writer and director. Her factual and documentary work has been shown in Canada on CBC, CBC News Network, TVO, W, Artv, Réseau de l’information (RDI), Société Radio-Canada (SRC), TFO, as well TV One and the History Network in the United States.
