His Worship, Mr. Montréal

Resurrecting Hassan

September 2017 •English

Traces the lives of the Hartings, a blind Montreal family of three who make their living singing in the city's subway stations. The Hartings lost their only sighted child Hassan in a tragic drowning accident, and have since turned to the teachings of Russian mystic Grigori Grabovoi, hoping to resurrect their son. Resurrecting Hassan is an exploration of this family's legacy of grief, tragedy and abuse; the film will follow them on their path to redemption.

EXPO 67 Mission Impossible

April 2017 •French

This documentary let us to relive the challenge of the men behind the 1967 Universal Exposition in Montréal, Canada. By searching trough 80,000 archival documents at the national Archives, they managed to bring light on one of the biggest logistical and political challenges that were faced by organizers during the "Révolution Tranquille" in the Québec sixties. Includes the accounts of the Chief of Advertising Yves Jasmin, and businessman Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien.

The Rise and Fall of English Montreal

August 1993 •English

In the past 20 years, some 300,000 English-speaking people have left Montréal, convinced they had no future in a Québec that had become increasingly French, increasingly nationalistic. In this video we meet some of the people who are moving away and recall the days, in the last century, when there were more English-speaking people than French in Montréal. The video poses a controversial question: Will the city, with its youth leaving in great numbers, become a community of the elderly, unable to renew itself?

Je suis finissant

August 2019 •French

Stories We Tell

October 2012 •English

Canadian actress and filmmaker Sarah Polley investigates certain secrets related to her mother, interviewing a group of family members and friends whose reliability varies depending of their implication in the events, which are remembered in different ways; so a trail of questions remains to be answered, because memory is always changing and the discovery of truth often depends on who is telling the tale.

Show Girls

January 1998 •English

Show Girls celebrates Montreal's swinging Black jazz scene from the 1920s to the 1960s, when the city was wide open. Three women who danced in the legendary Black clubs of the day - Rockhead's Paradise, The Terminal, Café St. Michel - share their unforgettable memories of life at the centre of one of the world's hottest jazz spots. From the Roaring Twenties, through the Second World War and on into the golden era of clubs in the fifties and sixities, Show Girls chronicles the lives of Bernice, Tina and Olga - mixing their memories with rarely seen footage of the era.

Buddhism

January 1962 •English

In this short documentary we learn the back story of the Buddha – the religion he founded and how it is manifested today. Travel through Southeast Asia to India, Burma, Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), Thailand, Japan, China and many other countries to discover the history and ideas behind Buddhism.

Griefwalker

January 2008 •English

Documentary about Harvard-trained theologian Stephen Jenkinson, a grief counselor who teaches that death empowers us to live and that we must not only accept death but embrace it.

Wet Earth and Warm People

January 1971 •English

This documentary by Michael Rubbo (Waiting for Fidel) offers candid glimpses of Indonesia and its people. Filming in and around the capital of Jakarta, the cameras follow where chance leads, capturing the flavour of life in this fertile crescent of tropical islands. Throughout the film, the focus is on a society caught between the past and the conflicting options for the future - to change or not to change from long-established patterns of life to ones more influenced by western technology.

The Memories of Angels

September 2008 •French

Documentary, poetry and essay rolled into one, this compilation of stockshots and clips sourced from NFB productions of the '50s and '60s offers a singular lesson in Montreal history - its famous figures, symbolic places, and ordinary citizens. Without commentary, the film moves from the red light district to Jean Drapeau, the Jacques-Cartier market, department stores downtown, textile factories, and the construction of Place Ville-Marie. We meet Geneviève Bujold, Oscar Peterson, Monique Mercure, and Igor Stravinsky. We hear Raymond Lévesque, Jean Drapeau, and René Lecavalier.

HAK_MTL

May 2019 •French

Does privacy still exist in 2019? In less than a generation, the internet has become a mass surveillance machine based on one simple mindset: If it's free, you're the product. Our information is captured, stored and made accessible to corporations and governments across the world. To the hacker community, Big Brother is real and only a technological battle can defeat him.

Chez Schwartz

January 2007 •English

Chez Schwartz takes us inside a year in the life of Schwartz's Deli - the unique 75-year-old landmark on Montreal's historic Main. Filmed through changing seasons, from the quiet of early morning preparation to the frenetic bustle of packed lunch times and never ending line-ups, to the more relaxed ambiance late at night - Chez Schwartz is an evocative, cinematic portrait of a small spunky deli known worldwide equally for its atmosphere and smoked meat.

Max in the Morning

January 1965 •English

At the microphone with Max Ferguson, radio satirist, as he creates his weekday-morning program. Filmed inside his CBC broadcasting booth, this film watches and records as Max ad-libs his way through zany interpretations of news events. His only script is the morning paper and with it he tilts at humbug with a flair that has made him a national figure.

Paris 1919: Un traité pour la paix

April 2009 •English

The last shots had been fired in the First World War — but peace had yet to be made. Inspired by Margaret MacMillan’s acclaimed work of popular history, Paris 1919 takes us inside the most ambitious peace talks in history, revisiting the event with a vivid sense of narrative. Evoking a pivotal moment when peace seemed possible, director Paul Cowan reflects upon the hard-learned lessons of history.

S.P.I.T.: Squeegee Punks In Traffic

January 2001 •English

We follow Roach, a 17-year-old ex-junkie and squeegee punk living on the streets of Toronto and Montreal. As part of the filmmaking process, he's been given a camera to document his world. The footage he gets is urgent, because there's a war against squeegee kids. This documentary is from the point of view of the kids themselves, in order to provide alternative voices. Roach's camera is positioned behind "enemy" lines: living in derelict buildings, squeegeeing for money, being hunted by police.

Lila

June 2022 •French

The Devil's Share

February 2018 •French

Quebec, on the cusp of the 1960s. The province is on the brink of momentous change. Deftly selecting clips from nearly 200 films from the National Film Board of Canada archives, director Luc Bourdon reinterprets the historical record, offering us a new and distinctive perspective on the Quiet Revolution.

Last Resort

January 1987 •French

This feature length documentary by Jacques Godbout tackles a topic all too rarely explored in the media: terrorism in Canadian society. From Montreal to Vancouver, and Quebec City to Toronto, exasperated individuals find a new calling as self-style saviours of humanity and decide to mete out their own justice. Part reportage, part essay and part critical analysis of the phenomenon, this film includes first-hand accounts by Serge Daoust, Franco Piperno, François Schirm, Pierre Vallières and young militants from the journal Révoltes.

Coller pour crier

December 2021 •French

On March 15, 2020, Montreal sees appearing on a wall, written in black letters on white paper "Stop feminicides". It is at this moment that the Collages Feminicides Montreal collective sees the light for the first time. Now the streets of the city are carpeted with their words. Today, after the 17th feminicide, they will continue to fight and stick, until this violence stops.

Evicted City

September 2023 •French

Montreal — one of the few remaining affordable cities in North America — is now in the midst of an unprecedented housing crisis. An intimate portrait of socio-political resistance, this multilayered film explores the human impact of real estate speculation on the cities of tomorrow.