Arts
A selection of films on art that shakes up preconceived ideas. It extends the pleasure of contemplation or enhances the experience of a piece. By juxtaposing mythical films and recent ones, we offer the sharpest views on the world of art … in all its forms.
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Jean Painlevé, fantaisie pour biologie marine
Jean Painlevé, fantaisie pour biologie marine
New product!Subscription access
_Jean Painlevé, fantaisie pour biologie marine_ traces the life and work of a man who played an essential role in the history of cinema. This atypical filmmaker, steeped in both scientific research and avant-garde thinking, was close to Jean Vigo, Alexander Calder, Luis Buñuel, and Sergei M. Eisenstein. He was able to create a dialogue between two disciplines: art and science. Thanks to their a...
Lights
Duration: 6 minutes
Subscription access
Created during the brief, illuminated Christmas season, _Lights_ was made between midnight and 1:00 a.m., when vehicular and pedestrian traffic was minimal, over a period of three years. The work draws on store decorations, window displays, fountains, public promenades, the lights of Park Avenue, and the facades of buildings and churches. Due to near-freezing temperatures, filmmaker Marie Menke...
7 Walks with Mark Brown
Duration: 3h28
Subscription access
Following the English botanist Mark Brown through the landscapes of the Normandy coast, Pierre Creton and Vincent Barré explore the world of plants and flowers in seven walks. The documentary unfolds in two stages, from the filmed journal to the resulting cinematic herbarium.
Claude Gauvreau- Poète
Duration: 57 minutes
Subscription access
The poet Claude Gauvreau, a towering figure of the spoken word, appears here in full command of his lyrical expression. During the Night of Poetry on March 27, 1970, he recites several of his poems, followed by excerpts from his famous work _La charge de l'orignal épormyable_, and finally takes part in a series of interviews. Released a few years after the poet’s tragic death, this moving portr...
Le 26 septembre à l'atelier
Duration: 4 minutes
Subscription access
A brief slice of life with friends from the ZI workshop.
Somber Tides
Subscription access
_Somber Tides_ is a cry from the species, startled into survival against the elements; one last breath before being trampled by the Earth or maybe conversely a battle to wage against winds and tides clutching on before extinction.
Chasing the Dazzling Light
Subscription access
Director Yaser Kassab followed in his father’s footsteps, emigrating from Syria to Europe as a young man, and, like his father, he also aspired to become a filmmaker. They now work together on this film remotely. From Syria, the father provides guidance to his son over the phone or via video calls, offering advice on future film projects and life in general—loving conversations punctuated by we...
After the Odyssey
Subscription access
After a Dantean journey, women from Nigeria arrive alone and ever younger in Italy, looking for a better life. Such horrors as human trafficking and sexual slavery are waiting for them, as we discover in this ensemble film, featuring harrowing stories told in a sensible way that spares us from the unbearable. These tales provoke a broader reflection on migration and otherness.
Le Métif enragé
Subscription access
A film that reveals the vitality, colour, talent and fury in Western Canada’s oldest and largest French city: St. Boniface. In a devilish mood, local poet George Morrissette uses a hometown fiddle competition to recite a poem about Franco-Manitobans and the Métis French. The audience turns against him and we witness a dramatic confrontation.
Cattle Call
Subscription access
_Cattle Call_ is a high-speed animated documentary about the art of livestock auctioneering. Structured around the mesmerizing talents of 2007 Man-Sask Auctioneer Champion, Tim Dowler, and using a variety of classic and avant-garde animation techniques, filmmakers Maryniuk and Rankin have tried to create images as dazzlingly abstract, absurd and adrenalizing as the incredible language of auctio...
Don't Blink - Robert Frank
Subscription access
Robert Frank revolutionised photography and independent film. He documented the Beats, Welsh coal miners, Peruvian Indians, The Stones, London bankers, and the Americans. This is the bumpy ride, revealed with unblinking honesty by the reclusive artist himself.
Mexico Will No Longer Exist
Subscription access
A frenetic gaze sweeps over a convulsed Mexico City, a colossal metropolis sustained by the myth of multiracialism and other colonial forms of violence. Past and present intertwine in a flurry of images—fragmented memories of this land. Ancient deities are incarnated, while dreams overlap with intimacy, complicity, and tumult. This is an erratic film that invites us to reimagine our complex rel...
Femmes écrivains
Subscription access
Françoise Sagan, Clara Malraux, Henriette Jelinek, and Françoise Mallet-Joris share their vision of literature and discuss the reasons that drive them to write.
Kite Zo A (Leave the Bones)
In 1791, in Haiti, Dutty Boukman presided over a Vodou ritual in Bois-Caïman that led to the creation of the first Black republic. Since then, rituals of transformation and artistic expression have been at the core of a thriving culture as the country faces oppression, poverty, and natural disasters. _Kite Zo A (Leave the Bones)_ is a sensorial film about rituals in Haiti, from ancient to moder...
Robert Doisneau: Through the Lens
Robert Doisneau: Through the Lens
Subscription accessBased on never-before-seen archives, this film written and directed by the photographer's granddaughter paints an intimate portrait of the man and the artist who joyfully intertwined his family and professional life to build an exemplary body of work. _Robert Doisneau: Through the Lens_ tells the story of how this child from the Parisian suburbs became one of the world's most famous photographers.
No Ordinary Man
For decades, the life of American Jazz musician Billy Tipton was framed as the story of an ambitious woman passing as a man in pursuit of a music career. In _No Ordinary Man_, Tipton’s story is re-imagined and performed by trans artists as they collectively paint a portrait of an unlikely hero. Together, the filmmakers join Tipton’s son Billy Jr. to reckon with a complicated and contested legac...
A Short History Of Madness
\_A Short History Of Madness\_ is a contemporary dance film. Traveling through time in six architectural scenes, it touches on key moments in the treatment of mental illness in Quebec, from the end of the 19th century to today. The film introduces us to six mentally ill characters who are interpreted by dancers. It then goes on to follow a woman, Jacqueline, who ends up on the street after losi...
My Father's Studio
In November 2001, Quebec Painter Edmund Alleyn (1931-2004) agreed to be filmed in his Montreal studio by his daughter, filmmaker Jennifer Alleyn. There, something unexpected happened : an authentic encounter, with no beating around the bush, no mask. From a few existential questions –about life, painting, death- thruth emerged. The artist died of cancer in December 2004 before Jennifer could fi...
Primas
\_Primas\_ is an evocative portrait of two cousins, Rocío and Aldana, Argentinian teenagers who, in the wake of heinous acts of violence that interrupted their childhoods, will free themselves from the shadows of their past. Travelling in Argentina and Montréal, the girls come of age having revelatory experiences in their everyday lives; learning dance, mime, theatre, circus and visual arts. ...
Jean Painlevé, fantaisie pour biologie marine
Jean Painlevé, fantaisie pour biologie marine
New product!Subscription access
_Jean Painlevé, fantaisie pour biologie marine_ traces the life and work of a man who played an essential role in the history of cinema. This atypical filmmaker, steeped in both scientific research and avant-garde thinking, was close to Jean Vigo, Alexander Calder, Luis Buñuel, and Sergei M. Eisenstein. He was able to create a dialogue between two disciplines: art and science. Thanks to their a...
Lights
Duration: 6 minutes
Subscription access
Created during the brief, illuminated Christmas season, _Lights_ was made between midnight and 1:00 a.m., when vehicular and pedestrian traffic was minimal, over a period of three years. The work draws on store decorations, window displays, fountains, public promenades, the lights of Park Avenue, and the facades of buildings and churches. Due to near-freezing temperatures, filmmaker Marie Menke...
7 Walks with Mark Brown
Duration: 3h28
Subscription access
Following the English botanist Mark Brown through the landscapes of the Normandy coast, Pierre Creton and Vincent Barré explore the world of plants and flowers in seven walks. The documentary unfolds in two stages, from the filmed journal to the resulting cinematic herbarium.
Claude Gauvreau- Poète
Duration: 57 minutes
Subscription access
The poet Claude Gauvreau, a towering figure of the spoken word, appears here in full command of his lyrical expression. During the Night of Poetry on March 27, 1970, he recites several of his poems, followed by excerpts from his famous work _La charge de l'orignal épormyable_, and finally takes part in a series of interviews. Released a few years after the poet’s tragic death, this moving portr...
Le 26 septembre à l'atelier
Duration: 4 minutes
Subscription access
A brief slice of life with friends from the ZI workshop.
Somber Tides
Subscription access
_Somber Tides_ is a cry from the species, startled into survival against the elements; one last breath before being trampled by the Earth or maybe conversely a battle to wage against winds and tides clutching on before extinction.
Chasing the Dazzling Light
Subscription access
Director Yaser Kassab followed in his father’s footsteps, emigrating from Syria to Europe as a young man, and, like his father, he also aspired to become a filmmaker. They now work together on this film remotely. From Syria, the father provides guidance to his son over the phone or via video calls, offering advice on future film projects and life in general—loving conversations punctuated by we...
After the Odyssey
Subscription access
After a Dantean journey, women from Nigeria arrive alone and ever younger in Italy, looking for a better life. Such horrors as human trafficking and sexual slavery are waiting for them, as we discover in this ensemble film, featuring harrowing stories told in a sensible way that spares us from the unbearable. These tales provoke a broader reflection on migration and otherness.
Le Métif enragé
Subscription access
A film that reveals the vitality, colour, talent and fury in Western Canada’s oldest and largest French city: St. Boniface. In a devilish mood, local poet George Morrissette uses a hometown fiddle competition to recite a poem about Franco-Manitobans and the Métis French. The audience turns against him and we witness a dramatic confrontation.
Cattle Call
Subscription access
_Cattle Call_ is a high-speed animated documentary about the art of livestock auctioneering. Structured around the mesmerizing talents of 2007 Man-Sask Auctioneer Champion, Tim Dowler, and using a variety of classic and avant-garde animation techniques, filmmakers Maryniuk and Rankin have tried to create images as dazzlingly abstract, absurd and adrenalizing as the incredible language of auctio...
Don't Blink - Robert Frank
Subscription access
Robert Frank revolutionised photography and independent film. He documented the Beats, Welsh coal miners, Peruvian Indians, The Stones, London bankers, and the Americans. This is the bumpy ride, revealed with unblinking honesty by the reclusive artist himself.
Mexico Will No Longer Exist
Subscription access
A frenetic gaze sweeps over a convulsed Mexico City, a colossal metropolis sustained by the myth of multiracialism and other colonial forms of violence. Past and present intertwine in a flurry of images—fragmented memories of this land. Ancient deities are incarnated, while dreams overlap with intimacy, complicity, and tumult. This is an erratic film that invites us to reimagine our complex rel...
Femmes écrivains
Subscription access
Françoise Sagan, Clara Malraux, Henriette Jelinek, and Françoise Mallet-Joris share their vision of literature and discuss the reasons that drive them to write.
Kite Zo A (Leave the Bones)
In 1791, in Haiti, Dutty Boukman presided over a Vodou ritual in Bois-Caïman that led to the creation of the first Black republic. Since then, rituals of transformation and artistic expression have been at the core of a thriving culture as the country faces oppression, poverty, and natural disasters. _Kite Zo A (Leave the Bones)_ is a sensorial film about rituals in Haiti, from ancient to moder...
Robert Doisneau: Through the Lens
Robert Doisneau: Through the Lens
Subscription accessBased on never-before-seen archives, this film written and directed by the photographer's granddaughter paints an intimate portrait of the man and the artist who joyfully intertwined his family and professional life to build an exemplary body of work. _Robert Doisneau: Through the Lens_ tells the story of how this child from the Parisian suburbs became one of the world's most famous photographers.
No Ordinary Man
For decades, the life of American Jazz musician Billy Tipton was framed as the story of an ambitious woman passing as a man in pursuit of a music career. In _No Ordinary Man_, Tipton’s story is re-imagined and performed by trans artists as they collectively paint a portrait of an unlikely hero. Together, the filmmakers join Tipton’s son Billy Jr. to reckon with a complicated and contested legac...
A Short History Of Madness
\_A Short History Of Madness\_ is a contemporary dance film. Traveling through time in six architectural scenes, it touches on key moments in the treatment of mental illness in Quebec, from the end of the 19th century to today. The film introduces us to six mentally ill characters who are interpreted by dancers. It then goes on to follow a woman, Jacqueline, who ends up on the street after losi...
My Father's Studio
In November 2001, Quebec Painter Edmund Alleyn (1931-2004) agreed to be filmed in his Montreal studio by his daughter, filmmaker Jennifer Alleyn. There, something unexpected happened : an authentic encounter, with no beating around the bush, no mask. From a few existential questions –about life, painting, death- thruth emerged. The artist died of cancer in December 2004 before Jennifer could fi...
Primas
\_Primas\_ is an evocative portrait of two cousins, Rocío and Aldana, Argentinian teenagers who, in the wake of heinous acts of violence that interrupted their childhoods, will free themselves from the shadows of their past. Travelling in Argentina and Montréal, the girls come of age having revelatory experiences in their everyday lives; learning dance, mime, theatre, circus and visual arts. ...
