Paul

Paul, a young man living in Canada, has over 7,500 followers on social media. There, he shares the activity that helps him cope with episodes of social anxiety and depression: cleaning women’s homes in a submissive role, often within a BDSM context. Denis Côté’s discreet camera observes these moments of extreme intimacy with quiet respect. Through tightly composed and lingering shots that allow the dynamics between Paul and his clients to unfold, the film creates a space where the camera feels almost invisible to those on screen. Yet, in the course of a phone conversation, Paul casually mentions that he is the subject of a documentary. He reflects on what this means: that his life, once shared only within a small, online circle, is now exposed to a broader public gaze. The moment is brief, but pivotal. It transforms Côté’s documentary gesture — and the tacit pact we, as viewers, enter into with Paul — into something more: not just an act of explicit, verbalised consent, but a deeply emancipatory act of self-determination and affirmation.
Dimitri de Preux

Paul, 2025
Days Before the Death of Nicky, 2024
Mademoiselle Kenopsia, 2023
That Kind of Summer, 2022
Social Hygiene, 2021
Wilcox, 2019
Ghost Town Anthology, 2019
A Skin So Soft, 2017
Boris Without Béatrice, 2016
Joy of Man's Desiring, 2014
Vic + Flo Saw a Bear, 2013
Bestiaire, 2012
Curling, 2010
Carcasses, 2009
All That She Wants, 2008
Our Private Lives, 2007
Drifting States, 2005