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 Dissolution of the Landscape
The Dissolution of the Landscape
New product!Subscription access
Through visual metaphors, the film offers an incursion into an inner landscape, a dive into subconscious, a mix of childhood memories and recurrent dreams, between surrealism and automatism.
Beaupré the Giant
Subscription access
Beaupré the Giant marked his era with his 8’3” height. Though he died young and far from home in 1904, his journey as a phenomenon was only just beginning. In a stunning series of twists and turns, his mummified body would take more than 80 years to find its way back home.
Create; Survive
Duration: 40 minutes
Subscription access
How can you continue to create when you can barely feed yourself? Alex Anna presents their film _Scars_ at a sunlit festival, but behind their apparent success hides a ceaseless fight with their own mind. Expressing the brutality of loneliness through a poetic act of cinematography, _Create; survive_ confronts our virtual and public identities against the intimate reality of depression.
Afterwards
Duration: 50 minutes
Subscription access
Inside a shelter, participants in a talking circle share their experiences of intimate partner violence as a way to regain their dignity and strength to act. Powerfully empathetic, _Afterwards_ creates a space of sisterhood and solidarity—a chorus of voices breaking down the walls of silence.
Emergency! A Critical Situation
Emergency! A Critical Situation
New product!Duration: 2h46
Subscription access
_Emergency! A Critical Situation_ explores the reality of an evening shift in the emergency department of the Centre hospitalier Pierre-Boucher, and reveals the daily lives of the nurses who work hard to provide this essential service to the public. The camera follows the footsteps of these professionals, revealing what they have to put up with to cope with the demands of their work, which is s...
Death is Dangerous, it Could Hurt
Death is Dangerous, it Could Hurt
Duration: 38 minutesSubscription access
Three rhythmic storylines are characterized by the rituals of everyday life and the vicissitudes of existence, coalescing around a common experience: that of shooting up as a mode of drug use.
Bloodhound Dog
Subscription access
Bloodhound dog handlers have an essential role in Québec’s hunting ecosystem. This short film meets one of them, Yves Martineau, and follows his long waits and intense research through the vastness of Canadian forest.
The Act of Beauty
Subscription access
Nestled at the heart of the Bic mountains, in this territory called Lower St. Lawrence, hides a community of wise and audacious people taking root. The collective farm Sageterre is the work of Jean Bédard, writer, philosopher but most importantly, a peasant. His writing calls for action. His work on the land cultivates ideas. Jean Bédard fights to see a new, more humane world, rise.
Interchange
Subscription access
Straddling the line between photography and cinema, _Interchange_ is a near-wordless observational depiction of life alongside a stark and imposing Montreal highway. _Interchange_ weaves portraits, landscapes, architecture and objects in its reflection on the city’s inhabitants, its traffic jams, the shipping of commercial goods and the nature of time itself.
A Man Imagined
Subscription access
67-year-old Lloyd gives filmmakers Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky a glimpse into his life on the margins of society. Blurring the boundaries of non-fiction cinema, the film reveals his gentle spirit and soulful solitude shaped by his troubled past.
D'un coup de pinceau
Subscription access
While preparing a major exhibition, painter Francine Simonin agrees to let the camera film her at work with her models. She talks about the themes that preoccupy her: the Woman and women, origin, fertility, beauty, transgression... A portrait of a woman who has made the female body her fundamental source of inspiration.
Bonfires
Huge bonfires are lit by Protestants in Northern Ireland on July 12 each year, as part of the celebrations of the 1690 Battle of the Boyne. They are made from wooden pallets, tires, and garbage. To the Protestants, they are symbols of identity affirmation; to the Catholics, they mean arrogance and humiliation.
Má Sài Gòn (Mother Saigon)
Subscription access
In Saigon, family culture carries on as it has for centuries, even when blood ties are broken. Through a mosaic of intimate portraits, _Má Sài Gòn_ explores humanity’s universal desire for love, acceptance, connection and belonging through an LGBTQ+ lens. The film is a love letter – a bittersweet ode to a comforting yet disturbing mother, to a city that is as liberating as it is oppressive.
Baby Trans
_Baby Trans_ portrays Laure\*, a gentle and intense soul. As she begins feminizing hormone therapy, Laure learns to navigate the bodily, emotional, and identity changes she experiences. (\*The main protagonist featured in the documentary has since changed her name for Laure.)
« Quel numéro - What number ? » ou le travail automatisé
« Quel numéro - What number ? » ou le travail automatisé
Duration: 1h21The film deconstructs the promises of the 1980s "computer revolution" by placing humans, rather than machines, at the center of the narrative. Service sector workers—secretaries, telephone operators, cashiers, and postal employees—find themselves confronted with the arrival of new technologies that reshape their workplace. With lucidity, humor, and emotion, they share their experiences of these...
Quiet Forces
Subscription access
An impressionistic, narration-free essay capturing the daily lives of the sailors aboard the frigate _HMCS Ottawa_ during its mission in the Pacific Ocean between British Columbia and California.
Agony
In search of a 15-day lock-in, a filmmaker finds himself trapped on a trawler in the open sea, where his distress becomes entwined with the fate of what he films. A sensory experience oscillating between anticipation and panic, this first short film has become an act of atonement for a traumatized filmmaker.
Outside Center
After finding community on a rugby team in Munich, Jamaican-born Desmond tackles life by embracing his homosexual identity.
Bergen, Norway
"Yesterday, I found my abuser's address in my phone's memory. I don't have a name, I don't have a face, I only have his address." - Alexia Roc
Vibrations from Gaza
Subscription access
This film offers an insight into the experiences of deaf children in the colonized and confined coastal territory of Gaza, Palestine, particularly the violence to which they are subjected by Israeli military operations. Born and raised under the frequent onslaught of the occupying forces, children Amani, Musa, Israa and others recite vivid memories of their experiences of bombardment and the co...
The Dissolution of the Landscape
The Dissolution of the Landscape
New product!Subscription access
Through visual metaphors, the film offers an incursion into an inner landscape, a dive into subconscious, a mix of childhood memories and recurrent dreams, between surrealism and automatism.
Beaupré the Giant
Subscription access
Beaupré the Giant marked his era with his 8’3” height. Though he died young and far from home in 1904, his journey as a phenomenon was only just beginning. In a stunning series of twists and turns, his mummified body would take more than 80 years to find its way back home.
Create; Survive
Duration: 40 minutes
Subscription access
How can you continue to create when you can barely feed yourself? Alex Anna presents their film _Scars_ at a sunlit festival, but behind their apparent success hides a ceaseless fight with their own mind. Expressing the brutality of loneliness through a poetic act of cinematography, _Create; survive_ confronts our virtual and public identities against the intimate reality of depression.
Afterwards
Duration: 50 minutes
Subscription access
Inside a shelter, participants in a talking circle share their experiences of intimate partner violence as a way to regain their dignity and strength to act. Powerfully empathetic, _Afterwards_ creates a space of sisterhood and solidarity—a chorus of voices breaking down the walls of silence.
Emergency! A Critical Situation
Emergency! A Critical Situation
New product!Duration: 2h46
Subscription access
_Emergency! A Critical Situation_ explores the reality of an evening shift in the emergency department of the Centre hospitalier Pierre-Boucher, and reveals the daily lives of the nurses who work hard to provide this essential service to the public. The camera follows the footsteps of these professionals, revealing what they have to put up with to cope with the demands of their work, which is s...
Death is Dangerous, it Could Hurt
Death is Dangerous, it Could Hurt
Duration: 38 minutesSubscription access
Three rhythmic storylines are characterized by the rituals of everyday life and the vicissitudes of existence, coalescing around a common experience: that of shooting up as a mode of drug use.
Bloodhound Dog
Subscription access
Bloodhound dog handlers have an essential role in Québec’s hunting ecosystem. This short film meets one of them, Yves Martineau, and follows his long waits and intense research through the vastness of Canadian forest.
The Act of Beauty
Subscription access
Nestled at the heart of the Bic mountains, in this territory called Lower St. Lawrence, hides a community of wise and audacious people taking root. The collective farm Sageterre is the work of Jean Bédard, writer, philosopher but most importantly, a peasant. His writing calls for action. His work on the land cultivates ideas. Jean Bédard fights to see a new, more humane world, rise.
Interchange
Subscription access
Straddling the line between photography and cinema, _Interchange_ is a near-wordless observational depiction of life alongside a stark and imposing Montreal highway. _Interchange_ weaves portraits, landscapes, architecture and objects in its reflection on the city’s inhabitants, its traffic jams, the shipping of commercial goods and the nature of time itself.
A Man Imagined
Subscription access
67-year-old Lloyd gives filmmakers Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky a glimpse into his life on the margins of society. Blurring the boundaries of non-fiction cinema, the film reveals his gentle spirit and soulful solitude shaped by his troubled past.
D'un coup de pinceau
Subscription access
While preparing a major exhibition, painter Francine Simonin agrees to let the camera film her at work with her models. She talks about the themes that preoccupy her: the Woman and women, origin, fertility, beauty, transgression... A portrait of a woman who has made the female body her fundamental source of inspiration.
Bonfires
Huge bonfires are lit by Protestants in Northern Ireland on July 12 each year, as part of the celebrations of the 1690 Battle of the Boyne. They are made from wooden pallets, tires, and garbage. To the Protestants, they are symbols of identity affirmation; to the Catholics, they mean arrogance and humiliation.
Má Sài Gòn (Mother Saigon)
Subscription access
In Saigon, family culture carries on as it has for centuries, even when blood ties are broken. Through a mosaic of intimate portraits, _Má Sài Gòn_ explores humanity’s universal desire for love, acceptance, connection and belonging through an LGBTQ+ lens. The film is a love letter – a bittersweet ode to a comforting yet disturbing mother, to a city that is as liberating as it is oppressive.
Baby Trans
_Baby Trans_ portrays Laure\*, a gentle and intense soul. As she begins feminizing hormone therapy, Laure learns to navigate the bodily, emotional, and identity changes she experiences. (\*The main protagonist featured in the documentary has since changed her name for Laure.)
« Quel numéro - What number ? » ou le travail automatisé
« Quel numéro - What number ? » ou le travail automatisé
Duration: 1h21The film deconstructs the promises of the 1980s "computer revolution" by placing humans, rather than machines, at the center of the narrative. Service sector workers—secretaries, telephone operators, cashiers, and postal employees—find themselves confronted with the arrival of new technologies that reshape their workplace. With lucidity, humor, and emotion, they share their experiences of these...
Quiet Forces
Subscription access
An impressionistic, narration-free essay capturing the daily lives of the sailors aboard the frigate _HMCS Ottawa_ during its mission in the Pacific Ocean between British Columbia and California.
Agony
In search of a 15-day lock-in, a filmmaker finds himself trapped on a trawler in the open sea, where his distress becomes entwined with the fate of what he films. A sensory experience oscillating between anticipation and panic, this first short film has become an act of atonement for a traumatized filmmaker.
Outside Center
After finding community on a rugby team in Munich, Jamaican-born Desmond tackles life by embracing his homosexual identity.
Bergen, Norway
"Yesterday, I found my abuser's address in my phone's memory. I don't have a name, I don't have a face, I only have his address." - Alexia Roc
Vibrations from Gaza
Subscription access
This film offers an insight into the experiences of deaf children in the colonized and confined coastal territory of Gaza, Palestine, particularly the violence to which they are subjected by Israeli military operations. Born and raised under the frequent onslaught of the occupying forces, children Amani, Musa, Israa and others recite vivid memories of their experiences of bombardment and the co...
