In 2015, the American Laura Poitras won the Oscar for the best documentary for her film Citizenfour, which focused on digital espionage and whistleblower Edward Snowden’s saga in the country of Vladimir Putin. She’s in the running for the Oscars again this year All the beauty and the bloodshed, a hard-hitting work that won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Portrait of this artist whose ancestors are Quebecers.
Laura Poitras was born on February 2, 1964 in Holliston near Boston to a wealthy family.
In 2008, his father, James Poitras, an engineer and shareholder of Highland Laboratories, is a huge philanthropist. In particular, he wrote a check for $20 million to support an institute doing brain research.
Leaving Gaspésie in 1892
The Poitras family legacy was built by grandfather Edward Poitras (1906-1981), who was born in Rumford, Maine into a modest French-Canadian family. His father Pierre – also called Peter John -, a machinist, came from Mont-Louis; he had left his hometown of Gaspé around 1892.
A very talented student, Edward had received a scholarship from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to fund all of his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering. “They even paid for my train tickets,” he proudly confided to his son James.
This article from a local newspaper attests to the scientific prowess of Laura Poitras’ grandfather.
scientific grandfather
During World War II, Edward Poitras worked for the US Department of Research and was director of research at Ford. He also designed the manual control system for the Mount Palomar telescope in California.
In 1953 he founded Highland Laboratories, a company that manufactured medical devices that made the family fortune. When he died in 1981, Poitras held no fewer than 72 patents. Patents related to thermal control, gyroscopes, plastic blood bags, fire alarms and sanitizer dispensers that we have all become familiar with in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Extract from the marriage certificate of Augustin Poitras and Adelaide Lapointe, Quebec ancestor of Laura Poitras, on July 17, 1865 in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, in Gaspésie.
many ancestors
The New France period family ancestor Jean Poitras (1635-1711), originally from Cugand south of Nantes, had 17 children by his first wife, Marie-Xainte Vié dit Lamothe (1649-1691), a Parisian married in Quebec. at the age of 15.
After four years of widowhood and single parenthood, he married Marie-Anne Lavoie (1673-1711), a 22-year-old Canadian, born in Saint-Augustin, not far from Quebec, who bore him 10 more children. So Poitras will have reproduced by the last year of his life. Today, his descendant Laura Poitras promotes the Quebec surname in cinema.
Photo from MIT web
James and Patricia Poitras, parents of Laura Poitras.
His documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, which chronicles activist Nan Goldin’s fight against opiates, which have killed half a million people in the United States alone since the turn of the century, could be worthy of a second Oscar.
This great film festival takes place on March 12th.
Photo from Wikicommons
Laura Poitras in 2014
Paternal line of Laura Poitras
I. POITRAS, James
and his wife Patricia
II. POITRAS, Eduard (1906-1981)
Willard, Dorothy
III. POITRAS, Pierre (1873-1938)
DUBE, Amanda (1881-1957?)
Mister. February 11, 1899, Lewiston, Maine
IV POITRAS, Louis Auguste (1843-1932)
LAPOINTE, Adelaide (1845-1915)
Mister. July 17, 1865, Sainte-Anne-des-Monts
v. POITRAS, Amable (1799-1874)
GUIMOND, Marie Desanges (1803-1849)
Mister. February 3, 1840, Cap-Saint-Ignace
VI. POITRAS, Jean Baptiste (1762-1827)
BERNIER, Margarete (1768-1838)
Mister. October 25, 1785, Cap Saint Ignace
vii POITRAS, Joseph Marie (1714-1789)
GARNEAU, Marie-Josephte (1740-1806)
Mister. October 6, 1761, Sainte-Foy
IX. POITRAS, Joseph-Lucien (1684-1748)
MOISAN, Genevieve (1691-1766)
Mister. November 24, 1708, Loretta
X POITRAS, John (1635-1711)
VIÉ called LAMOTHE, Marie-Xainte (1649-1691)
Mister. August 27, 1664, Quebec