The Family of the Forest
Gérard and Catherine left Belgium to live self-sufficiently in the boreal forest of Gaspésie, Quebec. Fifteen years later, as their three boys have grown up, what will become of this way of life?
| Director | Laura Rietveld |
| Actor | Naomie Décarie-Daigneault |
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"The idea is that you have to learn to be independent again," says the father of this family.
That sums up the story. Re-learning, or learning, or initiating oneself to that which has strayed away from us, or from which we ourselves have inextricably moved away: autonomy. Starting by weaving the lost bond with Nature, with Food, with Animals, with the Living.
Along the way, in this trail of modernity, we believed that autonomy was simply an individual capacity to make decisions to satisfy one's own needs, whereas autonomy, as recounted here, appears as an encounter with what surrounds and inhabits us, and a reawakening of our practical knowledge.
We used to believe that freedom meant freeing ourselves from dependencies. The policies of neoliberalism have promised us certain misguided pleasures, as we can see today. Recognizing that the land we inhabit nourishes us and shelters humans and animals seems to be the most (geo)political act of all. This film plunges us into this aperture of possibility (which is different for each one of us) and becomes a kind of concrete bridge to resilience.
Sylvie Lapointe
Filmmaker
Presented in collaboration with
-
Français
1h25
Language: Français -
English
1h25
Language: English
- Année 2022
- Pays Quebec
- Durée 85
- Producteur Catbird Productions
- Langue French
- Sous-titres English
- Résumé court Gérard and Catherine sacrificed everything to live self-sufficiently in the boreal forest of Quebec. Fifteen years later, what will become of this way of life now that their children have grown up?
"The idea is that you have to learn to be independent again," says the father of this family.
That sums up the story. Re-learning, or learning, or initiating oneself to that which has strayed away from us, or from which we ourselves have inextricably moved away: autonomy. Starting by weaving the lost bond with Nature, with Food, with Animals, with the Living.
Along the way, in this trail of modernity, we believed that autonomy was simply an individual capacity to make decisions to satisfy one's own needs, whereas autonomy, as recounted here, appears as an encounter with what surrounds and inhabits us, and a reawakening of our practical knowledge.
We used to believe that freedom meant freeing ourselves from dependencies. The policies of neoliberalism have promised us certain misguided pleasures, as we can see today. Recognizing that the land we inhabit nourishes us and shelters humans and animals seems to be the most (geo)political act of all. This film plunges us into this aperture of possibility (which is different for each one of us) and becomes a kind of concrete bridge to resilience.
Sylvie Lapointe
Filmmaker
Presented in collaboration with
-
Français
Duration: 1h25Language: Français1h25 -
English
Duration: 1h25Language: English1h25
- Année 2022
- Pays Quebec
- Durée 85
- Producteur Catbird Productions
- Langue French
- Sous-titres English
- Résumé court Gérard and Catherine sacrificed everything to live self-sufficiently in the boreal forest of Quebec. Fifteen years later, what will become of this way of life now that their children have grown up?
