Je suis finissant

Pennhurst

March 2019 •English

Segregation, abandonment, and the meaning of home are discussed by the people that lived in, worked at, and crusaded for one of the largest and oldest Intellectual and Developmental Disability Institutions in the United States. The facility, in its closing, challenged society's perception of those with intellectual disabilities and ultimately fought for better rights.

The Street

February 1996 •English

Every day, on the streets of Canada's cities, we pass them on our way to work or school. Bums, beggars, winos, bag people we call them. But who is the person at the end of that outstretched arm? What is life on the street really like? Is there a way off the street? For six years, director Daniel Cross followed the lives of three homeless men who spent much of their time in and around a Montreal subway station. Filmed in a cinema verité style, the film is unique: it humanizes the homeless, breaking down the barrier between us and them, neither moralizing nor offering easy answers. This is a gritty, compelling look at life on the streets that moves beyond the media stereotypes to show both the humanity of the homeless and the street-toughened aspects of their existence.

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.

Voltige

November 2024 •Ukrainian

Anna, a twelve-year-old Ukrainian gymnast, has fled her war-torn country and recently settled in Montreal with her mother, younger brother, and grandmother. Confronted by the past, the challenges of exile, and a deep need for belonging, she seeks to rebuild her identity and regain her balance. Through her child’s perspective, the documentary explores the reality of life after war, questioning what endures and what is missing, even when one has found refuge.

La Coupe Stanley à Montréal en 1993

January 2008 •French

La langue est donc une histoire d'amour

October 2019 •French

Dorchester: au coeur de la mêlée

January 2025 •French

Under Dorchester Square in Montreal lies the cemetery where 55,000 people were buried in the 19th century. The square is still at the heart of social conflicts in Quebec, 150 years later.

Monsieur

September 2003 •French

Corno

March 2013 •French

A feature-length documentary portrait of Québécoise painter Johanne Corno, who has lived and worked in New York City for more than 20 years. Ignored by the art intelligentsia in Québec, she settled abroad to escape that creative constraint, and built an enviable international career. Today, she casts a lucid eye on her work and describes the resources she draws on to survive in the jungle of the contemporary art world.

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.

Comfort and Indifference

February 1982 •French

Made shortly after the referendum on Quebec's independence was held, this documentary illustrates what the politicians' promises were and how the population did not really care nor truly understand what was really at stake, even though just about everyone had an opinion on the subject.

Le roi du drum

June 1992 •French

Guy Nadon is the rhythm incarnate. A jazz drummer who strikes on everything that makes noise. A king of musical improvisation, but also a king of improvisation, sometimes holding words bordering on surrealism.

Stepping Out

December 1980 •English

One of the most honoured and distinguished documentaries in Australian film history. Stepping Out draws attention to the talents of people with intellectual disabilities. The group went on to perform at the Sydney Opera House.

Wrestling

January 1961 •French

A candid-camera view of professional wrestling as seen in the Montréal Forum, where some of the biggest bouts are staged, and in back-street wrestling parlours where the warriors practice their art.

Homeroom

January 2021 •English

Following the class of 2020 at Oakland High School in a year marked by seismic change, exploring the emotional world of teenagers coming of age against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world.

Try Harder!

December 2021 •English

In a universe where cool kids are nerds, the orchestra is world class and being Asian American is the norm, seniors at Lowell High School compete for the top prize: admission to the college of their dreams.

Roger D'Astous

March 2016 •French

A documentary about montreal architect Roger D'astous, who battled all his life to create a nordic architecture. Starchitect in the 60s, this Frank L. Wright student then fell from grace before rising again at the dawn of the century.

Nos Amours: The Saga of the Expos of Montreal

May 2024 •French

The film explores key moments in the history of the Expos as well as the relentless efforts to bring major league baseball to Montreal. Continuation of the work released in 2003.

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.

No entry

June 2022 •French

Prohibited, abandoned, and unexplored sites are hidden and sealed in Montreal. Entering defies the law, danger, and death. The urbex community is an even better-kept secret. Enter into this universe at your peril.