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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The Horse Palace
Duration: 2h16
Subscription access
Amid the abandoned factories and crumbling buildings of Griffintown lies Montreal’s oldest stable, the last remnant of a bygone era. In this intriguing, anachronistic enclave, brushing up against modernity, time seems to have stood still. But ever since its aging owner decided to sell the property, the days of the Horse Palace are numbered…
Exarcheia: The Chanting of Birds
Exarcheia: The Chanting of Birds
New product!Duration: 1h14
Subscription access
_Exarcheia: The Chanting of Birds_ takes you on a dreamy nocturnal stroll through one of Greece’s most politically active neighbourhoods, situated in the heart of Athens, just below the Acropolis. In this lively and mythical space, you meet a coterie of characters whose ideals and aspirations are in constant flux. Set against the backdrop of the economic crisis, _Exarcheia_ is a poetical and po...
Metro
Duration: 17 minutes
Subscription access
By taking a fresh look at the spaces that make it up and the life that inhabits it, _Metro_ observes the gestures, mechanics and underside of this monumental underground network that weaves the city together and irrigates it on a daily basis. From the roar of the ventilation system to the vast ceilings above, the film reveals a place of rare magnitude, with singular acoustics and a human presen...
Claude Gauvreau- Poète
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
Subscription access
A brief slice of life with friends from the ZI workshop.
The Specter of Waves
Subscription access
Forced to protect themselves and flee from exposure to the electromagnetic waves and fields that surround us, François, Suzanne and Lorraine share with us the torments imposed by electrohypersensitivity. Through an intimate approach, _The Spectre of Waves_ sheds light on the humanity behind the taboos that accompany this often-misunderstood intolerance syndrome.
Archeology of Light
Subscription access
_Archeology of Light_ invites us into the heart of Minganie's landscapes in Quebec. A place surrounded by countless presences. Everything there is perception. Every perception emerges from the interplay between the observer's gaze and the living world: the trees, the moss carpeting the forest floor, the water winding through rocks, light filtered by the canopy, the sun's reflection on the restl...
Amazonia, an Encounter with the Guardian of the Rainforest
Amazonia, an Encounter with the Guardian of the Rainforest
Duration: 3h14Subscription access
With a hybrid style blending political essay and road movie, this documentary by Santiago Bertolino takes us into the heart of the Amazonian reality. Following Marie-Josée Béliveau, an ecologist and ethnogeographer, they journey together along the 4000 km from the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil to one of its sources in Ecuador where they meet with the guardians of the forest. As a result, ...
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.
The White Guard
Subscription access
The Mexican landscape fades away into ashes and dust, fragmented, defaced and scorched. Behind barbed wirefences, forests, rivers and mountains fall to the hands of private companies. Once transformed, the landscape becomes a separate universe, an incongruous and dangerous area where the new masters and their mercenaries terrorize people into silence. Like other farmers from across the country,...
Auto Portrait / Self Portrait Post Partum
Auto Portrait / Self Portrait Post Partum
Duration: 13 minutesSubscription access
_Auto Portrait / Self Portrait Post Partum_ is a first person autobiographical experimental film exploring the ramifications of the devastating breakup of a romantic relationship. A triptych of self-portraits — entire camera rolls, each subjected to different methods of intervention with the celluloid itself — are intercut with short excerpts of altered footage from a B movie trailer and punctu...
L'éclat du mal / The Bleeding Heart of It
L'éclat du mal / The Bleeding Heart of It
Duration: 8 minutesSubscription access
The house that bursts; the scene of the crime; the nucleus. A universe collapses on itself: all hell breaks loose.
Jours en fleurs
Subscription access
_Jours en fleurs_ is a reclamation of flower-power that celebrates both the fertile and the fierce forces of nature, reinventing their relationship to the feminine. Images of flowering trees soaked in menstrual blood for several months undergo a gestation of decay, whose visceral ravages give rise to a beauty that is at once dark and luminous, endowing them with the Baudelairean “formless and m...
Jolicoeur Touriste
Subscription access
An enclosed space, a struggle against the constraints of personal isolation explored through a fractured narrative. A man living in a broken-down rented room in a Tourist Inn travels through his drunkenness, his memories and his fantasies, transcending the limits of time and space which suddenly intertwine. A film about loss and absence.
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.
Forest Alert
Subscription access
While silence and ignorance reign supreme over our forests—and despite official assurances that our forest heritage will remain untouched—this hard-hitting documentary raises the question of our collective responsibility in the face of the destruction of a truly unique environment. The boreal forest, that immense wealth once thought inexhaustible—can we really say it’s in good hands?
Atalaya
Subscription access
_Atalaya_ means "watchtower" in Spanish. It’s also the name of the Chilean islands where, in 1998, debris was found from the boat belonging to the filmmaker’s seafaring father, Gerry Roufs, lost at sea. It’s also a key word of the book _Une Atalaya pour Gerry Roufs_ written by her mother, Michèle Cartier, which recounts the search she undertook to find him in 1997-1998. _Atalaya_ is the filmmak...
The Horse Palace
Duration: 2h16
Subscription access
Amid the abandoned factories and crumbling buildings of Griffintown lies Montreal’s oldest stable, the last remnant of a bygone era. In this intriguing, anachronistic enclave, brushing up against modernity, time seems to have stood still. But ever since its aging owner decided to sell the property, the days of the Horse Palace are numbered…
Exarcheia: The Chanting of Birds
Exarcheia: The Chanting of Birds
New product!Duration: 1h14
Subscription access
_Exarcheia: The Chanting of Birds_ takes you on a dreamy nocturnal stroll through one of Greece’s most politically active neighbourhoods, situated in the heart of Athens, just below the Acropolis. In this lively and mythical space, you meet a coterie of characters whose ideals and aspirations are in constant flux. Set against the backdrop of the economic crisis, _Exarcheia_ is a poetical and po...
Metro
Duration: 17 minutes
Subscription access
By taking a fresh look at the spaces that make it up and the life that inhabits it, _Metro_ observes the gestures, mechanics and underside of this monumental underground network that weaves the city together and irrigates it on a daily basis. From the roar of the ventilation system to the vast ceilings above, the film reveals a place of rare magnitude, with singular acoustics and a human presen...
Claude Gauvreau- Poète
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
Subscription access
A brief slice of life with friends from the ZI workshop.
The Specter of Waves
Subscription access
Forced to protect themselves and flee from exposure to the electromagnetic waves and fields that surround us, François, Suzanne and Lorraine share with us the torments imposed by electrohypersensitivity. Through an intimate approach, _The Spectre of Waves_ sheds light on the humanity behind the taboos that accompany this often-misunderstood intolerance syndrome.
Archeology of Light
Subscription access
_Archeology of Light_ invites us into the heart of Minganie's landscapes in Quebec. A place surrounded by countless presences. Everything there is perception. Every perception emerges from the interplay between the observer's gaze and the living world: the trees, the moss carpeting the forest floor, the water winding through rocks, light filtered by the canopy, the sun's reflection on the restl...
Amazonia, an Encounter with the Guardian of the Rainforest
Amazonia, an Encounter with the Guardian of the Rainforest
Duration: 3h14Subscription access
With a hybrid style blending political essay and road movie, this documentary by Santiago Bertolino takes us into the heart of the Amazonian reality. Following Marie-Josée Béliveau, an ecologist and ethnogeographer, they journey together along the 4000 km from the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil to one of its sources in Ecuador where they meet with the guardians of the forest. As a result, ...
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.
The White Guard
Subscription access
The Mexican landscape fades away into ashes and dust, fragmented, defaced and scorched. Behind barbed wirefences, forests, rivers and mountains fall to the hands of private companies. Once transformed, the landscape becomes a separate universe, an incongruous and dangerous area where the new masters and their mercenaries terrorize people into silence. Like other farmers from across the country,...
Auto Portrait / Self Portrait Post Partum
Auto Portrait / Self Portrait Post Partum
Duration: 13 minutesSubscription access
_Auto Portrait / Self Portrait Post Partum_ is a first person autobiographical experimental film exploring the ramifications of the devastating breakup of a romantic relationship. A triptych of self-portraits — entire camera rolls, each subjected to different methods of intervention with the celluloid itself — are intercut with short excerpts of altered footage from a B movie trailer and punctu...
L'éclat du mal / The Bleeding Heart of It
L'éclat du mal / The Bleeding Heart of It
Duration: 8 minutesSubscription access
The house that bursts; the scene of the crime; the nucleus. A universe collapses on itself: all hell breaks loose.
Jours en fleurs
Subscription access
_Jours en fleurs_ is a reclamation of flower-power that celebrates both the fertile and the fierce forces of nature, reinventing their relationship to the feminine. Images of flowering trees soaked in menstrual blood for several months undergo a gestation of decay, whose visceral ravages give rise to a beauty that is at once dark and luminous, endowing them with the Baudelairean “formless and m...
Jolicoeur Touriste
Subscription access
An enclosed space, a struggle against the constraints of personal isolation explored through a fractured narrative. A man living in a broken-down rented room in a Tourist Inn travels through his drunkenness, his memories and his fantasies, transcending the limits of time and space which suddenly intertwine. A film about loss and absence.
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.
Forest Alert
Subscription access
While silence and ignorance reign supreme over our forests—and despite official assurances that our forest heritage will remain untouched—this hard-hitting documentary raises the question of our collective responsibility in the face of the destruction of a truly unique environment. The boreal forest, that immense wealth once thought inexhaustible—can we really say it’s in good hands?
Atalaya
Subscription access
_Atalaya_ means "watchtower" in Spanish. It’s also the name of the Chilean islands where, in 1998, debris was found from the boat belonging to the filmmaker’s seafaring father, Gerry Roufs, lost at sea. It’s also a key word of the book _Une Atalaya pour Gerry Roufs_ written by her mother, Michèle Cartier, which recounts the search she undertook to find him in 1997-1998. _Atalaya_ is the filmmak...
