Archives

Jacques

For over forty years, Jacques Duhoux, a pioneering explorer in northern Quebec, has lived alone in the Uapishka (Groulx) Mountains. Now 85 years old, he continues to live off the grid, despite the inevitable decline that comes with age. A tribute to a true monument of northern exploration, _Jacques_ reveals the delicate balance between nature, aging, and the search for freedom.

Teenage

Once, "teenagers" didn't exist. But then, they were invented. As the cultural landscape around the world was thrown into turmoil during the industrial revolution, and with a chasm erupting between adults and youth, the concept of a new generation took shape. Whether in America, England, or Germany, this was a new idea of how people come of age.

There Will Be No More Night

_There Will Be No More Night_ relies on footage captured by thermal cameras used by the American and French armies in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. By diverting these images from the propaganda narratives in which they are typically embedded, the film examines the dangers of an unchecked desire to see, prompting a reflection on the new paradigms of modern warfare.

The Waldheim Waltz

When Austrian diplomat and former UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim announced he was running for president in 1986, the news was greeted with joy and seen as a safe bet by his fellow countrymen and women. That is, until his Nazi past was revealed – an awkward detail he’d conveniently forgotten to mention during all his years in public office. Despite some people’s stupefaction and protests, ul...

La suite canadienne

In 1958, Ludmilla Chiriaeff's ballet _Suite canadienne_ was broadcast during the concert hour on Radio-Canada. This piece, now considered foundational for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, features dancers dressed as peasants in the settings of a fantasized colonial rurality. The discovery of this archival document is the starting point for the creation project led by amateur dancer and saxophonist...

A Life Like Any Other

"My father immortalized the most beautiful moments of his life in family films, while my mother's difficulties hit the blind spot in his images. Today, I'm revisiting these films to tell another story: that of a woman who sees her role as a mother gradually taking away her freedom." (Faustine Cros)

Three Comrades of Montreal

Giovanni, Francesco, and Salvatore have passed the age of 80 and are proud to still consider themselves communist or socialist comrades. All three left their poor villages in southern Italy after the war to settle in Montreal, where they maintained close ties with Italian left-wing parties while also being active in Canadian progressive unions and parties. Through images, personal documents, an...

First Months of Freedom

Cat, a transgender woman from Tennessee, got off parole in 2020. This film documents her first months of freedom in the pandemic. The piece was composed from phone videos, Skype calls, archival material, and original footage. Cat shares stories from her childhood and her life inside men's prisons, including her relationship with her husband and former cellmate who remains incarcerated. 

Il était une fois Françoise Dolto - Part 2

These conversations with renowned pediatrician and psychoanalyst Françoise Dolto were recorded in 1986, two years before her death. With her unique perspective on childhood, her humour, and her unparalleled talent for simplifying psychoanalytic theories, Dolto helped change the way society views children.

Une semaine dans la vie de camarades - Part 2

_Une semaine dans la vie de camarades_ is a road movie whose journey intersects with and extends the events of the International Counter-Culture Meeting that took place in 1975 in Montreal. This meeting, at the heart of the film, features several important figures of the counterculture in Quebec. Throughout the film, these individuals, often through their creative endeavors, question the evolut...

Une semaine dans la vie de camarades - Part 1

_Une semaine dans la vie de camarades_ is a road movie whose journey intersects with and extends the events of the International Counter-Culture Meeting that took place in 1975 in Montreal. This meeting, at the heart of the film, features several important figures of the counterculture in Quebec. Throughout the film, these individuals, often through their creative endeavors, question the evolut...

Caffè Italia, Montréal

Avoiding the trap of nostalgia, Paul Tana paints an endearing and nuanced portrait of Montreal's Italian community using archival documents, fiction, testimonies, and extracts from a theatrical creation. From the first waves of immigration at the beginning of the century to the concert of the young rocker Aldo Nova, the film highlights, sometimes with humour, the contradictions of Italians in t...