Screenwriting and Direction 
Patrick Bossé 

Production 
Les Productions Figure 55 
Michel D.T. Lam 
Pascal Pelletier 

Director of Photography 
Dominic St-Amant 

Graphic Animation 
Sindre Ulvik Péladeau 

Editing – narration 
Lucie Juillet 

Editing – image 
Odrée Lapointe 

Sound Design and Mixing 
Jean-François B. Sauvé 

Original Music 
Mathieu Charbonneau 

Cello 
Elisabeth Giroux 

Double Bass 
Rémi-Jean Leblanc 

Clarinets 
Guillaume Bourque 

Acoustic Guitar and Percussion 
Charles Blondeau 

Electric Guitar 
Joseph Marchand 

Harp 
Sarah Pagé 

Synthesizers, Piano, Lap Steel, Acoustic Guitar 
Mathieu Charbonneau 

Recording 
Studio MccM 
Studio Madame Wood 

Color Grading 
Beatrice Tremblay 

Graphic Design 
Turcotte Design 

3D Modeling 
Rafael Lugo 
PlantCatalog 

Photography of Serge Bouchard 
Radio-Canada 

Production Management 
Geneviève Audette 

Production Coordination 
Sarah Sozzi 

Production Accounting 
Amélie Jutras 

Distribution – Hubblo 
Karine Sévigny 
Philippe Chrusten 
Louis Lachance 
Adrien Dauphinais 

Radio-Canada 
Joëlle Villeneuve 
Sylvie Julien 
Mélanie Thivierge 

Special thanks to the Charbonneau and Denutte families for welcoming us into the former Lévesque and Bouchard family home. 

Thanks to Stéphan Coupal for the rides in Serge’s real Mack truck. 

Director’s Acknowledgements 
Catherine Dumas, Edmond Bossé, Françoise Bossé 
Lou Lévesque-Bouchard, Serge-Alexandre Bouchard, Jean-Philippe Pleau 
Audrey Beauchemin, Mathieu Bourdon, Gabriel Rondeau 
Myriam Magassouba, Guillaume Daoust, Antonio Pierre de Almeida, Nicolas Didtsch 

Production Acknowledgements 
Jean-Charles Piétacho, Monique Mestokosho and the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit 
Jenny Thibault, Société des arts technologiques 
Mathieu Boudreault, Johanne Vienneau and the La Vérendrye Wildlife Reserve 
Sylvain Roy and Auberge La Chicoutée, Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan 

Based on the words of Serge Bouchard, as heard in the radio programs Les chemins de travers and C’est fou, broadcast on ICI Première (Radio-Canada). 

WITH FINANCIAL PARTICIPATION FROM 
SODEC 
SODEC Tax Credit 
Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit 
BCPAC Tax Credit 

WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF 
Radio-Canada 
Société des arts technologiques

Rêveries d’un routier solitaire invites you to embark on an immersive journey across the dome guided by the words of Serge Bouchard. An anthropologist, writer, and keen observer of the land and its inhabitants, Serge takes us aboard his legendary truck for a journey that blends both the physical and the introspective. 

Featuring archival audio recordings from Serge Bouchard’s many appearances on Radio-Canada and accompanied by spectacular 360-degree visuals, the film juxtaposes sprawling landscapes with warm, insightful reflections. 

From quiet roads to endless skies, Serge invites us to see the world in a new light. An ode to nature, a tribute to Innu wisdom, and a love letter to the land, the film transforms listening into a deeply human experience. 

Get in. The journey unfolds. The immersive experience begins. 

Get ready to get carried away.

Rêveries d’un routier solitaire | Approach and Intentions

Origin of the Project

The film was born from a shared desire by director Patrick Bossé and producer Pascal Pelletier to create an immersive dome experience based on the archives of Serge Bouchard. Colleagues for more than 18 years and long-time admirers of the anthropologist, they had each previously attempted to start a project with him.

However, it was a meeting in 2023 with the then-director of ICI Première, Sylvie Julien, and the executive director of the Société des arts technologiques, Jenny Thibault, that truly marked the beginning of the adventure.

Intentions of the Writer and Director, Patrick Bossé

My first desire with this project was to let Serge Bouchard’s voice resonate inside the dome—both grand and comforting, sometimes sharp as well. I built the narrative around a filmmaking fantasy: climbing aboard his famous Mack truck, hitting the road alongside him, and letting him tell us about the territories he traveled through.

The choice of an immersive format also naturally aligns with his career as an anthropologist. Throughout his life, Bouchard immersed himself in environments and realities that were foreign to him in order to better understand them. In the same way, the 360-degree film invites the audience to step into his reflections and the landscapes that nourished his thinking.

The concept of the film gradually took shape as I immersed myself in a phenomenal amount of radio archives. I went through more than 1,250 pages of intervention summaries, listened to several hundred broadcasts, and then selected around ten hours of material. From there, I wove a narrative of about 45 minutes.

During this long funneling process, several criteria guided my choices. I wanted to work exclusively with his voice—particularly the deeper, calmer tone from his shows Les chemins de travers and C’est fou, with a particular fondness for his En circuit fermé segments. I also searched for first-person passages, as well as moments where he speaks about his experiences on the road and across the territory.

Gradually, the narrative came together as a long back-and-forth between his home in Huberdeau, in the Laurentians, and the deep forests of the Côte-Nord, with a detour through the La Vérendrye wildlife reserve. In this journey, I see a charming paradox in Bouchard: a deep love of machines and the road that ultimately leads him toward a form of communion with nature.

The foundation of the film is therefore built on an audio montage of archival recordings, from which I constructed an immersive environment: 360-degree video images of places he lived in and traveled through, 3D animations inspired by his reveries, enveloping sound design, and music evoking a road trip—always with his voice at the heart of the experience.

One of the wonderful discoveries during the process was the importance that his mythical red Mack truck—model B from 1958—came to occupy. I managed to track down its current owner, who had fully restored it and allowed us to film it on the road. We then recreated it in 3D to integrate it into various landscapes and some more dreamlike sequences.

For me, the film is both a tribute to a great local thinker and to the power of radio. It is not a traditional biography, but rather a sensitive reflection on our identity and our relationship with territory, while also honoring two communities that marked his life and work: long-haul truck drivers and the Innu people.

In a way, this project continues the path of my previous immersive film, Territoires des Amériques, inspired by the works and reflections of multidisciplinary artist René Derouin. I now hope to create a third film in the same format around another significant figure from here, forming a dome trilogy.

The Choice of Title

The title Rêveries d’un routier solitaire comes from Serge Bouchard’s own words. In the radio series Une épinette noire nommée Diesel, he sets out across Canada with a small recording team. In the very first episode, recalling his many road journeys, he summarizes his state of mind with these words: the reveries of a solitary trucker.

The expression became a guiding thread for the film, which immerses the audience in reflections born both from the very real roads he traveled and from the imaginary paths that crossed his mind.

The title also echoes the unfinished work by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Rêveries d’un routier solitaire, which Bouchard was certainly referencing. By a curious coincidence, I had myself read this text about fifteen years ago on a flight between Montreal and Vancouver, while preparing to cross the country—mainly by moped—to document the journey of two cyclists during a fundraiser for cancer research.

A More Personal Connection for the Director

As a small anecdote, nearly ten years ago I proposed a completely different short-film project to Serge Bouchard through his agent at the time. The project was also titled Rêveries and was meant to take place in the Pointe-aux-Prairies nature park, a place that was dear to both of us.

Although I unfortunately never had the chance to meet him, I feel a deep connection with him. We both lived part of our lives in Pointe-aux-Trembles, at the eastern end of the Island of Montreal, where I spent my childhood and teenage years.

This neighborhood served as the setting for several of his columns. I recognize the same attachment he had to this territory: a clear-eyed view of a heavy industrial heritage, but also a certain pride in this often overlooked area, bordered by the majestic St. Lawrence River and rich in stories.

His writing may not be unrelated to the feature-length documentary project I am currently developing, set in the east end of Montreal.