Frédéric Back, Activist
By Claude Villeneuve

A biologist by training, Villeneuve is renowned internationally for his expertise. He is a member of several eco-advisory committees and has chaired the Natural, Social and Human Sciences committee of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO from 2000 to 2004.

My daughter Nathalie was eight years old, and The Man Who Planted Trees had just won an Oscar. One evening, the phone rang at home and she picked it up. I will always remember her expression: “Papa, it’s Frédéric Back who wants to speak to you!” I don’t think my status in her eyes was ever as high as during that magical time in 1989. In 1983, I had published a book called Des animaux malades de l’homme?, which Frédéric had read and found inspiring. So he asked me to work with him on his next film, The Might River.

Pierre Dansereau had often talked to me about the complementarity shared by scientists and artists. It was something I would experience it for myself in working on The The Might River, especially when Radio-Canada asked me to write a book based on the film. It is the best book I have ever written. Best in an aesthetic sense, of course, since Frédéric’s illustrations make it a masterpiece, but the book is noteworthy most of all for its soul. This experience taught me that we can create something new in sharing our sensibility through two radically different analytical frameworks. The scientist seeks truth by examining the facts. He must limit himself to the bare, hard facts, whereas the artist, on the other hand, has the freedom to seek truth beyond the measurable.

Thanks to his imagination, Frédéric Back transcends the laws of physics and biology and, through the metamorphoses of the mighty, all-giving river, shows how everything is connected. He affirms the oneness of the mineral and animal world, of matter and energy, of life and death. How could one not feel moved to action by his urgent call to protect the environment? All I had to do was to explain how the St. Lawrence hydrographic unit had made it possible for our society to become what it is today through the appropriation of its riches throughout our history. I also had to point out how we were endangering its grandeur and beauty and how essential it was to look at it in a new way. With his images, Frédéric urged us to get to know the river better, to take steps to rehabilitate it and, especially, to change our attitude toward the environment. He made us understand our interdependence with ecosystems. Instead of just continuing to exploit its resources and spoil its beauty, we need to open our eyes and enter into a new alliance with Magtogoek, the mighty river that units everything in this part of the country. That is the message of the Aboriginal cultures, which recognize no boundary between man and his environment—a message that the film and Frédéric’s images invite us to share.

Frédéric has devoted his life and his talent to convincing us of the truth of that message. That is his main focus of action. But he has done even more. He has consistently devoted his energy and resources to environmental activism, encouraging in every way possible initiatives by people of goodwill. How many talks, presentations and donations has he given over the past 45 years, always with the support of Ghylaine and his family? Generous, with no thought for his own financial gain, Frédéric is a disconcertingly modest man who has always refused to bask in the glory of his genius. On the contrary, he always brings the conversation back to the causes in which he believes. His drawings render palpable the emotion he feels for nature. And it is contagious. No one can remain indifferent to it.

Going beyond words, he has tried to convince people through his varied acts and deeds. He has planted thousands of trees and helped change the world in his own way. For that, the generations to come are in his debt and I will never be able to thank Frédéric and Ghylaine enough for the message they convey and the example they set.

If the world has any chance of being better tomorrow, it is through the actions of those who have been touched by Frédéric’s messages, then and now. Many will undertake to further his work. My daughter Nathalie is now the mother of a little girl named Adèle. A drawing from the storyboard for The Might River hangs on her bedroom wall. The box set of Frédéric’s films has a prominent place in the family video collection. As she grows up, Adèle will be able to appreciate Frédéric Back’s commitment to the environment and transmit to her own children and grandchildren, into the next century, the values and the message that he has always expressed in his works.

Let us show our gratitude to him by participating in large numbers in this blog, where his selfless ideas will find fertile ground and attentive gardeners.


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