Michel Brault (1928–2013) is a Quebec filmmaker, director of photography and producer. He is one of the greatest filmmakers of the direct cinema and the first to develop an aesthetics of handheld camerawork, a practice today unavoidable. In the sixties, Michel Brault was a bridge between Québec and the French New Wave, notably due to his collaboration with Jean Rouch, showing in Europe the recent achievements of direct cinema. He his of most of NFB's flagship works in direct cinema, including Les Raquetteurs (1958), Wrestling (1961) and Pour la suite du monde (1963). He also directed Orders (1974), a must-see film about the October Crisis, which occurred in Quebec in October 1970 and with which he won the 1975 Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
In the late 1960s, with the triumph of bilingualism and biculturalism, New Brunswick's Université de Moncton became the setting for the awakening of Acadian nationalism after centuries of defeatism and resignation. Although 40% of the province's population spoke French, they had been unable to make their voices heard. The film captures the behind-the-scenes action and the students' determinati...
Morbihan is one of the poorest regions in Brittany. Joseph, a 33-year-old farmer, can no longer live off the land. He is hired at the new plant that has just opened. In few days, if not few hours, his life is transformed. He enters the system of mass production and rote work. However, each night, he get back to his farm, far from the urban centers where workers must usually live.
Drifting Upstream ou Between Salt and Sweet Water
Young mariner Claude leaves his little hometown to pursue his dream to become a folk singer in Montreal. There he meets Geneviève, and they become lovers. But the relationship falters as Claude begins to experience success.
Filmed at a summer cottage in the Laurentians north of Montreal, this film penetrates briefly the charmed world of the adolescent. Watching and listening, you sense the bittersweet mood of childhood's end, the poignant awareness that nothing will ever be the same after this summer at the lake.
Octobre 1970. Suite aux enlèvements de Cross et de Laporte, en réaction à la sympathie pour les « terroristes » du FLQ à la suite de la lecture télévisée et la publication dans tous les journaux de leur manifeste, 450 personnes sont arrêtées, la plupart en pleine nuit, et demeurent un temps variable en prison avant d'être relâchées sans qu'aucune accusation ne soit portée contre elles. Du témoi...
In the late 1960s, with the triumph of bilingualism and biculturalism, New Brunswick's Université de Moncton became the setting for the awakening of Acadian nationalism after centuries of defeatism and resignation. Although 40% of the province's population spoke French, they had been unable to make their voices heard. The film captures the behind-the-scenes action and the students' determinati...
Morbihan is one of the poorest regions in Brittany. Joseph, a 33-year-old farmer, can no longer live off the land. He is hired at the new plant that has just opened. In few days, if not few hours, his life is transformed. He enters the system of mass production and rote work. However, each night, he get back to his farm, far from the urban centers where workers must usually live.
Drifting Upstream ou Between Salt and Sweet Water
Young mariner Claude leaves his little hometown to pursue his dream to become a folk singer in Montreal. There he meets Geneviève, and they become lovers. But the relationship falters as Claude begins to experience success.
Filmed at a summer cottage in the Laurentians north of Montreal, this film penetrates briefly the charmed world of the adolescent. Watching and listening, you sense the bittersweet mood of childhood's end, the poignant awareness that nothing will ever be the same after this summer at the lake.
Octobre 1970. Suite aux enlèvements de Cross et de Laporte, en réaction à la sympathie pour les « terroristes » du FLQ à la suite de la lecture télévisée et la publication dans tous les journaux de leur manifeste, 450 personnes sont arrêtées, la plupart en pleine nuit, et demeurent un temps variable en prison avant d'être relâchées sans qu'aucune accusation ne soit portée contre elles. Du témoi...