Franck Le Coroller

Janette et filles

Janette Bertrand, 96, is at the time of the balance sheets. Where are the women, where is the fight for gender equality? An hour of History with a capital H and Love with a capital A, to not forget anything and, above all, never stop moving forward.

City of a dream

Montreal was initially the dream of people who believed in the possibility of creating a better world in New France. Who were those people? Which ideal did they pursue, and why? The answers can be found in a 17th century manuscript, allegedly the hidden memoir of Jeanne Mance. The filmmaker revisits this story in an original, personal way, highlighting how the past echoes the still current yearning to create a world with more humanistic values. —Annabel Loyola

Outremont et les Hassidim

OUTREMONT AND THE HASIDIM reveals the challenges of accommodating the “Hasidim” – or ultra-Orthodox Jews – in the affluent Montréal borough of Outremont.​Some 7,000 Hasidim live in or near this choice neighbourhood of Québec’s Francophone elite. After settling there more than 70 years ago, the Hasidim are a rapidly growing minority group which today represents about 23% of Outremont’s population.​Thanks to unprecedented access to this self-isolated community, the film lifts the veil on its practices, traditions, music and life as they had never before been seen on Canadian television, without ignoring the community’s expectations, fears. and hopes.

Yolanda

Coming from the countryside to visit a friend, Solange 75, rediscovers Montreal. She talks to everyone with confidence and does some portraits of the people she meets. She meets Tom, a younger, moody and disillusioned man. Fictional scenes are interwoven with documentary scenes: portraits of Montrealers and snatches of conversations taken from life.

My Real Life

Montréal-Nord is one of those areas we euphemistically call “disadvantaged.” A place where drugs, poverty, delinquency, suicide and all kinds of dysfunction are depressingly commonplace. This is where the late Magnus Isacsson decided to film 18 months in the lives of four young men aged 17 to 22: Danny, Alex, Mickerson and Michael. Music is central to all of their lives. More than just a pastime, hip-hop is their outlet for coping with their demons. With the help of their teacher, mentor and friend Don Karnage, and driven by a fierce desire to overcome hardship, they learn to be adults. Winner of the award for Best Canadian Feature Film at the most recent Montreal International Documentary Festival, Ma vie réelle is an exceptionally astute document in which listening and generosity gain the power to defeat misery.