A Losing Game
_A Losing Game_ follows three people who ran for office in Quebec’s October 2022 provincial election. The one thing they had in common? They were all sure to lose. Through their individual campaigns, the film pulls back the curtain on our electoral system and the many ways in which it is dysfunctional: the additional barriers faced by women and racialized people, deficiencies in the voting process, unfair campaign financing rules, and the undue weight given to the media and polls... This documentary casts a critical eye on a political system that doesn’t offer everyone the same opportunities. For most, the race is over before it even begins.
| Director | Jenny Cartwright |
| Actor | Naomie Décarie-Daigneault |
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Can we claim to live in a democracy? Filmmaker, audio artist, Tënk programmer, and co-leader of the NUL party Jenny Cartwright delivers, with A Losing Game, a rigorous and uncompromising examination of the many dysfunctions of the electoral system—one that not only perpetuates existing power structures, but also creates significant distortions in the voices represented in the National Assembly. Through a colossal research effort that reveals the full extent of representational biases—media advantages, the reproduction of elites, the encouragement of a governing class disconnected from the population, and a lack of diversity—Cartwright’s film sounds the alarm: what kind of democracy are we so proud of? By following the electoral campaigns (or attempts at campaigning!) of three candidates certain to lose their elections, the film illustrates through lived experience what it seeks to demonstrate through the words of researchers, thinkers, and activists. We come away with one obsessive question: how can we reclaim electoral processes in order to reinvent our democracies? Sortition, direct democracy, constituent assemblies, reforming party financing and the voting system… Where do we even begin?!
Naomie Décarie-Daigneault
Tënk's Artistic Director
-
Français
Language: Français -
English
Language: English
- Année 2025
- Pays Quebec
- Durée 97
- Producteur ONF / NFB
- Langue French, English
- Sous-titres French, English
- Résumé court A critical look at Quebec’s electoral system and the many ways in which it is dysfunctional.
- TLF_Applismb_CA 1
- Date édito CA 2026-10-02
Can we claim to live in a democracy? Filmmaker, audio artist, Tënk programmer, and co-leader of the NUL party Jenny Cartwright delivers, with A Losing Game, a rigorous and uncompromising examination of the many dysfunctions of the electoral system—one that not only perpetuates existing power structures, but also creates significant distortions in the voices represented in the National Assembly. Through a colossal research effort that reveals the full extent of representational biases—media advantages, the reproduction of elites, the encouragement of a governing class disconnected from the population, and a lack of diversity—Cartwright’s film sounds the alarm: what kind of democracy are we so proud of? By following the electoral campaigns (or attempts at campaigning!) of three candidates certain to lose their elections, the film illustrates through lived experience what it seeks to demonstrate through the words of researchers, thinkers, and activists. We come away with one obsessive question: how can we reclaim electoral processes in order to reinvent our democracies? Sortition, direct democracy, constituent assemblies, reforming party financing and the voting system… Where do we even begin?!
Naomie Décarie-Daigneault
Tënk's Artistic Director
-
Français
Language: Français -
English
Language: English
- Année 2025
- Pays Quebec
- Durée 97
- Producteur ONF / NFB
- Langue French, English
- Sous-titres French, English
- Résumé court A critical look at Quebec’s electoral system and the many ways in which it is dysfunctional.
- TLF_Applismb_CA 1
- Date édito CA 2026-10-02
