Eli Jean Tahchi is a Lebanese Canadian filmmaker based in Montreal, Quebec."L'exposition No man's land : Entrevue avec l'artiste Eli-Jean Tahchi". Ici Radio-Canada Première, June 2, 2022. He is most noted as a two-time Prix Iris nominee for Best Short Documentary, receiving nods at the 24th Quebec Cinema Awards in 2022 for Sometimes I Wish I Was on a Desert Island (Y’a des fois où j’aimerais me trouver sur une île déserte),Naomie Gelper, "La 24e Gala Québec Cinéma se tient ce soir, voici les lauréats". Métro, June 5, 2022. and at the 26th Quebec Cinema Awards in 2024 for Outside Center.Éric Lavallée, "Prix Iris 2024: Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person Leads “Quebec Oscars” Noms". Ioncinema, October 9, 2024.
Biography A graduate of the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts, he moved to Canada in 2011 to study film at the Université de Montréal and the Institut national de l'image et du son.Samuel Larochelle, "Eli Jean Tahchi: The Importance of Telling Outsiders’ Stories". Canada Media Fund, November 20, 2020. He later stated that moving to Quebec helped to establish his identity as an "Arab-Quebecer-LGBTQ-citizen-of-the-world artist".
Sometimes I Wish I Was on a Desert Island, about the social isolation of LGBTQ Muslims, was made as part of The Curve, a National Film Board of Canada series of short films on people's experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. Outside Centre, about a Jamaican immigrant finding community with a gay rugby team after immigrating to Germany, was made as a student film in his studies at INIS, but became the first INIS student film ever to be acquired for commercial distribution."Le distributeur Travelling acquiert un film de L’inis, en première mondiale à Vancouver". Qui Fait Quoi, October 2, 2023.
In 2024 he created La Dernière communion, a comedy-drama web series about three Roman Catholic priests rebuilding their lives after retiring from the priesthood.Amélie Revert, "«La dernière communion»: rafraîchir l’air du temps". Le Devoir, December 6, 2024. The series premiered theatrically in October at the Abitibi-Témiscamingue International Film Festival, where it was the winner of the Prix Fonds Bell,Marie-Hélène Paquin, "Prodigieuses remporte les honneurs au Festival du cinéma international". Ici Radio-Canada Abitibi-Témiscamingue, November 1, 2024. before premiering on the website of Télé-Québec in December.Logan Cartier, "La dernière communion, la comédie sur les religieux qu’on a aimée plus qu’on pensait!". Fugues, November 27, 2024.
In October 2026, he served on the jury for the Queer Louve award at the 2026 Festival du nouveau cinéma, alongside writer Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay and drag queen Sami Landri."Les invités du 55e FNC et la Queer Louve". CTVM, October 1, 2025.
Filmography Geometry - 2014 She Is Lars - 2014 The Migrant Woman (La Femme migrante) - 2015 By the Wind (Au gré du vent) - 2016 The Migrant Mixtape (La Cassette Migrante) - 2017 Days of Rage (Jours de rage) - 2019 Fissure - 2019 Sometimes I Wish I Was on a Desert Island (Y’a des fois où j’aimerais me trouver sur une île déserte) - 2020 Neighbors in My Backyard (Des voisins dans ma cour) - 2021 Outside Center - 2023 La Dernière communion - 2024 0004ngel - 2025
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