2022 Nobis Industry Icon Winner Louise Jobin

Louise Jobin is a pioneer in the community of costumers in Quebec, Canada. From the beginning of her profession, she has actively participated in establishing the standards of the trade, helping to raise the bar for the entire profession as an AQTIS union president and spokesperson. Louise began her ever-expanding career dressing marionettes, then went on to design costumes for film and theatre, winning the first ever Genie award for Best Costume design for the film Cordelia. Louise has continuously devoted herself to sharing her vast knowledge to new generations of designers, costumers, seamstresses and pattern cutters of all ages and horizons across Canada. At the dawn of her well-deserved retirement, Louise continues to be involved on a regular basis with the Grand Costumier, for whom she is a precious source of knowledge.

Louise Jobin's passion for literature and history led her to the theatre in 1963, when she manipulated string puppets with Micheline Legendre. After meeting Michel TREMBLAY and André BRASSARD in 1964, she became costume designer for more than forty plays (1964-1995), most directed by the latter, also by Robert LEPAGE, Brigitte HAENTJENS and others. In 1966, she started working for Radio-Canada costumes department assisting Gilles-André Vaillancourt for the Québec historical series D'Iberville and other designers.

Film and television Costumes

Louise Jobin's career in cinematography began in 1970 under the mentorship of François BARBEAU becoming his assistant on the film Eliza's Horoscope (Gordon SHEPPARD). 1971 found her in charge of costume design for the film La course du lièvre à travers les champs ((René CLÉMENT). Work on 50 other films followed. Of particular note were her collaborations with François Barbeau on Kamouraska (Claude JUTRA) and Les corps célestes (Gilles CARLE). She then designed the costumes for a number of well-known major films, among them Joshua, Then and Now (Ted KOTCHEFF); Les Ordres (Michel BRAULT); J.A. Martin photographe, Being at home with Claude and Cordélia (Jean BEAUDIN); Pouvoir intime (Yves SIMONEAU);  A Time to Live (Rick Walllace); Ford the Man and the Machine (Allan EASTMAN); April Morning (Delbert MANN); À corps perdu (Léa POOL); Onzième spéciale (Micheline LANCTÖT); Jésus de Montréal (Denys ARCAND) and Les vautours, L'Affaire Coffin and Bonjour monsieur Gauguin (Jean-Claude LABRECQUE).

Other

Louise Jobin has remained actively involved in the arts community. In 1972, with François Barbeau and François Laplante, she founded Atelier de costumes BJL, which in 1994 became the not-for- profit Centre national du costume. It closed its doors in 2006.

Concerned with working conditions, Louise Jobin has put a lot of effort into recognizing the rights of cinema technicians. As a trade union president and spokesperson (AQTIS) she was at the negotiating table with the APFTQ at the first collective convention in 1976, then, again, in 1990-1991, as Vice-president and spokesperson.

She has sat on a number of boards including for Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois, INIS, and the National Board for the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television and Le Grand Costumier. She has also been a jury member for Genie and Gémeaux awards and was chair of the FCTNM (WIFT (Allia). Louise Jobin is a teacher at the National Theatre School and was a script analyst for the Harold Greenberg Fund. She has been a consultant for Le Grand Costumier of Montréal since its opening in 2016.

Honours and awards

Louise Jobin has been recognized by her peers for her creativity and expertise, and has earned many nominations and won several prestigious awards. In 2001, the FCTNM paid her tribute for her body of work. She has won Genie awards for Best costumes in Jésus de Montréal (1990), Joshua Then and Now (1986), Cordélia (1980), and a Gemini (1987) for Ford, the Man and the Machine. And Gémeaux Awards for Best art direction for Ces enfants d’ailleurs II (1999) and L’Ombre de l’épervier  (1998).