Québec Contemporary Cinema
Quebec has always had a privileged relationship with documentary cinema, a tremendous melting pot of its artistic, social and political modernity. Nearly 60 years after the birth of direct cinema, juggling continuity and inventiveness, the local filmmakers are still pursuing a rich dialogue with their society. Here, you will find an anthology of contemporary films made by notorious documentary filmmakers or belonging to a new generation. Through a bright diversity of styles and viewpoints, these filmmakers all share a boundless creativity and an uninhibited freedom that question, challenge, reconcile and help to better understand today’s Quebec and the rest of the world
Visual identity created by Moïa Jobin-Paré
The THROUGH OUR LENS page lists all the Quebec films available on Tënk. It allows you to dive into an exploration of Quebec documentary cinema and discover an anthology of films made by both renowned and emerging documentary filmmakers. Through a dazzling diversity of forms and perspectives, these filmmakers have in common an overflowing creativity and an uninhibited freedom that questions, confronts, reconciles and helps us better understand Quebec and the world.
To perform a more detailed search on Quebec films, use our search engine !
Also discover fascinating interviews with local filmmakers in our Fragments section :
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No Story Here
Duration: 10 minutes
Subscription access
_No Story Here_, the first film by Jeannine Gagné, co-directed with Michel Lamothe, offers a striking portrait of working-class Montréal in the 1970s. Created without a script and using just 600 feet of film, this student short freely blends images and sounds, the latter serving as echoes of the popular psyche, already foreshadowing _City Dawn_.
The Rebelious One
Duration: 53 minutes
Subscription access
Half-fiction and half-documentary, _The Rebelious One_ is both a personal interpretation and a poetical rendition of Marie-Claire Blais' work that follows the Quebec writer's literary journey through eleven of her novels. Like a continuous thread leading us through the discovery of her writings, the voice, the vision and the keen consciousness of Blais recall the social events and the human dra...
I Might Be Dead by Tomorrow
Patients arrive in the consultation room every day, broken, sick and scarred by life. In front of them sits a committed person who tries, without false hope, to repair bodies and psyches. At night, when the clinic doors are closed, the street outreach workers take to the streets to extend their support to all those unfortunate women who have chosen the streets as their home.
Belle River
Subscription access
2019\. Spring flooding in Mississippi hits record highs. In Louisiana, the residents of Pierre Part are preparing for the worst. Barring an unexpected turn of events, local authorities will soon be forced to open the floodgates of the Morganza Spillway, in order to save the cities of New Orleans and Baton Rouge from further uncontrolled flooding. Faith and resilience are the two best weapons th...
These Streets Will Never Look the Same
These Streets Will Never Look the Same
Duration: 3h12Subscription access
A car slowly navigates the winding streets and disparate airwaves of the United States of America to uncover the scars of capitalism in natural landscapes, urban environments, people, and wildlife. An intricately built meditative audio-visual experience.
Somehow Continue
Subscription access
Shot on 16mm film, this piece creatively portrays the making of _Creation Destruction_, a multidisciplinary outdoor performance by choreographer Dana Gingras set to music by the band Godspeed You! Black Emperor. With a keen eye for detail, Karl Lemieux captures the rehearsals and offers a glimpse into the neighborhood hosting the event.
The Seven Last Words
Subscription access
_The Seven Last Words_ sounds out experiential states and rituals particular to humanity, based on the seven themes expressed in a musical composition: forgiveness, salvation, relationship, abandonment, distress, triumph, and reunion. Seven award-winning Canadian filmmakers of diverse origins and art practices explore a wealth of human experience and feeling, based on the seven phrases at the o...
UWD
Subscription access
A poetic crossover in a ruined world where each person survives alone amid collective disarray. Bodies in motion, dance and physical prowess, replace words, embodying and revealing bruised characters haunted by a past that feels sweeter than this crumbling world.
Pitié pour les étranges
Subscription access
A documentary without dialogue shot in part at la Maison du pêcheur, in Percé, featuring future members of the FLQ (Front de libération du Québec). This short film, recently rediscovered by filmmaker Félix Rose, has hardly ever been broadcast.
Gino Bouleau
Subscription access
At 42, Gino left the city and retired, settling in an isolated cabin where he lives simply and fully.
I Might Be Dead by Tomorrow
Subscription access
Patients arrive in the consultation room every day, broken, sick and scarred by life. In front of them sits a committed person who tries, without false hope, to repair bodies and psyches. At night, when the clinic doors are closed, the street outreach workers take to the streets to extend their support to all those unfortunate women who have chosen the streets as their home.
Where The River Widens
Inspired by the friendship and the work of fishermen, Zack Greenleaf sings the mig'mag culture of his Gesgapegiag village, "where the river widens.”
The Last Herd
Isolated in the remote mountains of the Gaspésie National Park, a last herd of caribou resists defiantly against human encroachment. When the first European settlers arrived on the East Coast of North America in 1534, caribou numbered in the tens of thousands. Today scarcely 100 remain. They are the last survivors. This documentary tells of their plight and the precarious tipping point on which...
Last Train Home
En Chine, à chaque année le même rituel dramatique se produit. Dans les villes-usines du Sud, des millions de travailleurs migratoires se battent pour une place dans des trains bondés de monde. Ils essaient tous de rentrer dans leurs villages pour le Nouvel An chinois. Madame et Monsieur Zhang vivent ainsi depuis une vingtaine d’années. Ils connaissent à peine leurs enfants qui ont été élevés p...
This Is No Time for Romance
Subscription access
In the midst of summer pleasures and her children's play, a young woman questions the meaning of her life as a wife and mother, and her chances of happiness. Filmed in the 1960s, this film starring Monique Mercure and Marc Favreau depicts the "female condition" from various perspectives.
Old Age and Hope
When old age inflicts physical and sometimes mental decay, is there a way to remain hopeful towards life and its mysteries? This documentary tackles this question by challenging not only specialists such as geriatricians, gerontologists, psychologists, and philosophers but first and foremost the elderly themselves.
An Ecology of Hope
Subscription access
A portrait of Pierre Dansereau, a renowned Quebecois professor, scientist, humanist, and ecologist celebrated globally for his groundbreaking research on ecosystems. This film takes us on a global journey, exploring diverse landscapes from Baffin Island and Gaspésie to Brazil and the metropolis of New York.
Tout le temps, tout le temps, tout le temps... ?
Tout le temps, tout le temps, tout le temps... ?
Duration: 1h55Subscription access
A Quebec family scattered across the big city reunites in the countryside, in Sainte-Théodosie, and discusses the importance of love, life-which-is-worth-being-lived, the need for freedom and society-which-is-badly-made.
Saint-Jérôme
Subscription access
This socially-driven film explores the impact of technological changes on the city of Saint-Jérôme, which faced a severe socio-economic crisis in the 1960s, mirroring issues in other Quebec cities. Citizens from all social classes come together in a monumental effort to address the crisis. The film serves as both a reflection of this situation and a catalyst for action, acting as a mediation to...
Joseph Samuel Jacques Julien
Jacques is 59 years old and has spent his entire career as a salesman in Quebec City. The past few months have been especially challenging for him: mourning the loss of his wife, he finds it difficult to regain his footing. Should he change his life? Change his identity? Amidst a growing political turmoil, the narrator remains hopeful, insisting that Jacques still has reason to hope.
No Story Here
Duration: 10 minutes
Subscription access
_No Story Here_, the first film by Jeannine Gagné, co-directed with Michel Lamothe, offers a striking portrait of working-class Montréal in the 1970s. Created without a script and using just 600 feet of film, this student short freely blends images and sounds, the latter serving as echoes of the popular psyche, already foreshadowing _City Dawn_.
The Rebelious One
Duration: 53 minutes
Subscription access
Half-fiction and half-documentary, _The Rebelious One_ is both a personal interpretation and a poetical rendition of Marie-Claire Blais' work that follows the Quebec writer's literary journey through eleven of her novels. Like a continuous thread leading us through the discovery of her writings, the voice, the vision and the keen consciousness of Blais recall the social events and the human dra...
I Might Be Dead by Tomorrow
Patients arrive in the consultation room every day, broken, sick and scarred by life. In front of them sits a committed person who tries, without false hope, to repair bodies and psyches. At night, when the clinic doors are closed, the street outreach workers take to the streets to extend their support to all those unfortunate women who have chosen the streets as their home.
Belle River
Subscription access
2019\. Spring flooding in Mississippi hits record highs. In Louisiana, the residents of Pierre Part are preparing for the worst. Barring an unexpected turn of events, local authorities will soon be forced to open the floodgates of the Morganza Spillway, in order to save the cities of New Orleans and Baton Rouge from further uncontrolled flooding. Faith and resilience are the two best weapons th...
These Streets Will Never Look the Same
These Streets Will Never Look the Same
Duration: 3h12Subscription access
A car slowly navigates the winding streets and disparate airwaves of the United States of America to uncover the scars of capitalism in natural landscapes, urban environments, people, and wildlife. An intricately built meditative audio-visual experience.
Somehow Continue
Subscription access
Shot on 16mm film, this piece creatively portrays the making of _Creation Destruction_, a multidisciplinary outdoor performance by choreographer Dana Gingras set to music by the band Godspeed You! Black Emperor. With a keen eye for detail, Karl Lemieux captures the rehearsals and offers a glimpse into the neighborhood hosting the event.
The Seven Last Words
Subscription access
_The Seven Last Words_ sounds out experiential states and rituals particular to humanity, based on the seven themes expressed in a musical composition: forgiveness, salvation, relationship, abandonment, distress, triumph, and reunion. Seven award-winning Canadian filmmakers of diverse origins and art practices explore a wealth of human experience and feeling, based on the seven phrases at the o...
UWD
Subscription access
A poetic crossover in a ruined world where each person survives alone amid collective disarray. Bodies in motion, dance and physical prowess, replace words, embodying and revealing bruised characters haunted by a past that feels sweeter than this crumbling world.
Pitié pour les étranges
Subscription access
A documentary without dialogue shot in part at la Maison du pêcheur, in Percé, featuring future members of the FLQ (Front de libération du Québec). This short film, recently rediscovered by filmmaker Félix Rose, has hardly ever been broadcast.
Gino Bouleau
Subscription access
At 42, Gino left the city and retired, settling in an isolated cabin where he lives simply and fully.
I Might Be Dead by Tomorrow
Subscription access
Patients arrive in the consultation room every day, broken, sick and scarred by life. In front of them sits a committed person who tries, without false hope, to repair bodies and psyches. At night, when the clinic doors are closed, the street outreach workers take to the streets to extend their support to all those unfortunate women who have chosen the streets as their home.
Where The River Widens
Inspired by the friendship and the work of fishermen, Zack Greenleaf sings the mig'mag culture of his Gesgapegiag village, "where the river widens.”
The Last Herd
Isolated in the remote mountains of the Gaspésie National Park, a last herd of caribou resists defiantly against human encroachment. When the first European settlers arrived on the East Coast of North America in 1534, caribou numbered in the tens of thousands. Today scarcely 100 remain. They are the last survivors. This documentary tells of their plight and the precarious tipping point on which...
Last Train Home
En Chine, à chaque année le même rituel dramatique se produit. Dans les villes-usines du Sud, des millions de travailleurs migratoires se battent pour une place dans des trains bondés de monde. Ils essaient tous de rentrer dans leurs villages pour le Nouvel An chinois. Madame et Monsieur Zhang vivent ainsi depuis une vingtaine d’années. Ils connaissent à peine leurs enfants qui ont été élevés p...
This Is No Time for Romance
Subscription access
In the midst of summer pleasures and her children's play, a young woman questions the meaning of her life as a wife and mother, and her chances of happiness. Filmed in the 1960s, this film starring Monique Mercure and Marc Favreau depicts the "female condition" from various perspectives.
Old Age and Hope
When old age inflicts physical and sometimes mental decay, is there a way to remain hopeful towards life and its mysteries? This documentary tackles this question by challenging not only specialists such as geriatricians, gerontologists, psychologists, and philosophers but first and foremost the elderly themselves.
An Ecology of Hope
Subscription access
A portrait of Pierre Dansereau, a renowned Quebecois professor, scientist, humanist, and ecologist celebrated globally for his groundbreaking research on ecosystems. This film takes us on a global journey, exploring diverse landscapes from Baffin Island and Gaspésie to Brazil and the metropolis of New York.
Tout le temps, tout le temps, tout le temps... ?
Tout le temps, tout le temps, tout le temps... ?
Duration: 1h55Subscription access
A Quebec family scattered across the big city reunites in the countryside, in Sainte-Théodosie, and discusses the importance of love, life-which-is-worth-being-lived, the need for freedom and society-which-is-badly-made.
Saint-Jérôme
Subscription access
This socially-driven film explores the impact of technological changes on the city of Saint-Jérôme, which faced a severe socio-economic crisis in the 1960s, mirroring issues in other Quebec cities. Citizens from all social classes come together in a monumental effort to address the crisis. The film serves as both a reflection of this situation and a catalyst for action, acting as a mediation to...
Joseph Samuel Jacques Julien
Jacques is 59 years old and has spent his entire career as a salesman in Quebec City. The past few months have been especially challenging for him: mourning the loss of his wife, he finds it difficult to regain his footing. Should he change his life? Change his identity? Amidst a growing political turmoil, the narrator remains hopeful, insisting that Jacques still has reason to hope.
