Côté, Georges, 1883-1963

A native of the village of Saint-Gervais south of Quebec City, Georges Côté was a cleric and amateur filmmaker; he was ordained at the Grand Séminaire in Quebec City in 1907. He became vicar of the Quebec City parish of St.-Roch, then later the parish of Saint-Louis-de-Courville, in the Quebec City region, where he opened Quebec’s first parish cinema in 1921. Although not one of the “prêtres-cinéastes,” after he was appointed curé of the municipality of Saint-Charles-de-Bellechasse in 1927, he began filming local events, a pastime he pursued throughout the 1930s. A former classmate, the anthropologist Marius Barbeau, who was collaborating with McGill University professor of architecture Ramsay Traquair, persuaded him to write a treatise, “La Vieille Église de Saint-Charles-Borromée sur la rivière Boyer (Comté Bellechasse) en 1928, à l’occasion de son centenaire.”