Combat contre la langue de bois
Fundraising event for the company Les Filles électriques
Le Combat contre la langue de bois was created in 2005 by D. Kimm as a part of Festival Voix d’Amériques. She was tired of hearing the same old speeches, like broken records, and the multiple excises every time a public figure is out of their comfort zone. From this, she organized an evening where participants must commit themselves to their words, talk about a topic of their choosing, not within the frames of a debate or a Q&A but in an independent way in front of an attentive audience.
That’s the story. Who would have known that this bold and atypical event would become a cult show and a platform for daring and free expression? For this 11th Combat contre la langue de bois, eleven public figures will go on stage to speak of a topic of their choosing, ranging from the most intimate to the most political. They will be invited to fight against their own stiff tongue and to express what they really think.
The rules are strict: talk for 5 minutes, no counter-argument, no excuses after. Between the speeches, an infernal house band will make sure transitions are smooth while keeping the atmosphere as electric as ever, with the help of our irreverent MC.
Artists, journalists, philosophers, politicians… the participants of the Combat come from different backgrounds and we are not looking for consensus, on the contrary. The objective is to shed light on different points of view and to confront our values and our ideas. This is what makes the Combat contre la langue de bois a unique, bold and festive event.
Amongst some 90 or so brave participants of the Combat throughout the years, we’d like to name: Betty Bonifassi, Jean-Paul Daoust, Michel Désautels, Lewis Furey, Monique Jérôme-Forget, Micheline Lanctôt, Aurélie Lanctôt, Marc Séguin, Claude Robinson, Lorraine Pintal, Fabien Cloutier, Mani Soleymanlou, Luc Ferrandez, John Parisella, Sylvie Moreau, Réjean Thomas, Yves Désautels, Louise Beaudoin, Ariane Moffatt, Rémy Girard, Ghislain Picard, Monique Simard, Sophie Cadieux, Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, Charlotte Laurier, Martin Léon, Claude Poissant, Brigitte Haentjens, René-Daniel Dubois, Évelyne de la Chenelière, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, Richard Desjardins, Monique Giroux, Robert Morin, Ginette Noiseux, Jim Corcoran, Francine Pelletier, Serge Bouchard, Marie-Louise Arsenault, Paule Baillargeon, Gilles Proulx, Robin Aubert, Chantal Lamarre, etc.