The Heritage of Radio-Canada

The Heritage of Radio-Canada: When Television Inspired Reflection

On the occasion of the release of an issue of Spirale magazine dedicated to television fiction in Quebec, Tënk has partnered with the magazine and the CinéMédias Lab to explore television as a device that stimulates thought. Reflecting on the fundamentally democratic nature of public media and the responsibilities towards the common good that arise from it, we have selected four productions from the heritage of Radio-Canada that embodied an intention to stimulate collective reflection.

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The emancipatory potential of a public media is unparalleled. Despite political and economic pressures from the rest of the ecosystem, its very existence embodies a form of democratic utopia. Of course, its structure reproduces biases and carries its share of blind spots, amplified by its nationalist mandate. But the fact that such a large communicative structure can exist, be collectively taken care of, and even minimally escape the pressure of profitability to fulfill a mission of popular education and promotion of cultural expressions is a democratic choice that is impossible to imagine today, given how projects of this magnitude seem to belong to another world. While the gains of collectivist years are subjected to an announced exercise of destruction – one only needs to look at the privatization, bit by bit, of the health system, the neglect of the network of childcare centers in favor of private daycares, the public communication campaign to prepare for the privatization of Hydro-Québec – it would be difficult to imagine a vast project for a large public infrastructure. The era is marked by privatization and fragmentation. And echo chambers multiply, their rumors never surpassing the four walls of their reciprocal confinements.

Concerned by the lack of interesting documentary proposals on Radio-Canada, we wanted to revisit old productions that aimed to bring thoughtful content into homes. Even if they undoubtedly reflect the biases of an intellectual elite and are not without flaws, where they catch our attention is primarily in their duration, the exposure to demanding and non-sensational artistic currents, their radical austerity (probably more imposed than sought!), and the attention they give to the weight of words and the possibility of expressing new, challenging, or critical ideas in mass media. It's a curious irony to think that a radical television form today would precisely involve a return to the despised "talking heads" of contemporary productions, an absence of decor, and the length of an interview, avoiding reliance solely on biographical curiosity!

One of Radio-Canada's flagship programs is undoubtedly Le sel de la semaine, where Fernand Séguin, a biochemist by training and a great communicator, interviews local and international personalities. Séguin's interviewing skills, coupled with the profound changes experienced by Quebec society, have made this show an extraordinary snapshot of the late 1960s. We have chosen the interview with Anaïs Nin, a poignant audiovisual testimony from a major artist who archived the staggering 20th century through her diaristic work. Less known than many of the literary men she inspired, this interview allows us to delve into the incredible life of an author who transcended the art of journaling.

Impossible to ignore, the program Femme d'aujourd'hui provides a fast-paced history lesson on feminism in Quebec. Aired for 17 years, this Radio-Canada production evolved from an afternoon women's magazine to a social news program questioning the most significant issues of the century. Contraception, abortion, feminist movements, work, household responsibilities, lesbianism, celibacy—nothing escapes the scrutiny of this daily show, which interviewed prominent female figures of the time, from Simone de Beauvoir to Han Suyin. While many notable episodes caught our eye, we have chosen the interview conducted by the masterful Aline Desjardins with the intellectual Susan Sontag at her home in Paris. Sontag eloquently presents her journey that led her to feminism.

In the program Aujourd'hui, artists and influential personalities in Quebec society are interviewed in a very understated format. Pierre Perrault discusses the residents of Isle-aux-Coudres, Germaine Giroux recounts the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, and a journalist engages with members of Réjean Ducharme's family. In the selected excerpt for this stop, the young writer Fernand Ouellette shares insights from his work on the musician Edgar Varèse. As a co-founder of the magazine Liberté and a producer of cultural programs at Radio-Canada for 27 years, Ouellette appears particularly curious and disruptive, full of an infectious enthusiasm for discovery. He discovers "real music" when listening to Varèse's work in 1957, suggested by Henry Miller. Another poignant testimony of a society in the midst of radical transformation.

It is essential to constantly remember the responsibilities that come with the status of a broadcaster and to question what productions carry in terms of significance, ethics, and perspectives. The future of our democracies depends on this quality of questioning.