25 Years with Lidia: A Culinary Jubilee

A look at the life of chef, restaurateur and cookbook author Lidia Bastianich both on and off the screen as she celebrates 25 years on public television.

2023-12-18 | en

The Rise and Fall of English Montreal

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?

1993-08-23 | en

Stories We Tell

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.

2012-10-12 | en

Show Girls

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.

1998-01-01 | en

Lorraine Pintal - So The Light Never Dies

Directed by Ariane Louis-Seize, this tribute film was created as a gift for Lorraine Pintal, director of Montreal’s Théâtre du Nouveau Monde. Featuring some of the most memorable characters and performers of Pintal’s career, the film’s succession of surreal scenes from different dramatic worlds introduces viewers to the exceptional woman of theatre, stage director, and friend whom they consider to be the “ghost light” of Quebec theatre.

2019-04-05 | fr

I Build the Tower

"I Build the Tower" is the true story of the life and work of Sam Rodia, the Italian immigrant who built the world-famous Watts Towers on a residential lot in South Central Los Angeles. These mosaic-covered spires of reinforced cement rising to almost one hundred feet were once scheduled for demolition by the City Building Department. The towers survived to become a symbol of the community in which they stand and they are now recognized throughout the world as a unique embodiment of the structural principles found in nature.

2006-01-01 | en

HAK_MTL

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.

2019-05-17 | fr

New York solo andata

New York Solo Andata tells the story of the American Dream from the first Italian migratory flows to nowadays through the voices of all those who truly believed and fulfilled it with determination. Davide Ippolito leaves Italy to meet Italians and important personalities living in New York to tell the most unusual aspects of the city to remind "if you can dream it, you can do it."

2023-10-19 | it

Resurrecting Hassan

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.

2017-09-22 | en

Quartiers sous tension

2017-08-12 | fr

The Memories of Angels

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.

2008-09-05 | fr

Strangers for the Day

This short documentary shows the reactions of European immigrants as they land in Halifax at the beginning of the 1960s. From the port, we follow them on a snowy journey by train to Montreal.

1962-01-01 | en

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.

2012-11-01 | fr

Je suis finissant

2019-08-25 | fr

Evicted City

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.

2023-09-15 | fr

Cricket & Park-Ex: a love story

This film takes us inside the world of cricket and the daily life of Montreal's Parc Extension - one of Canada's poorest yet most vibrant immigrant neighbourhoods.

2016-02-24 | en

His Worship, Mr. Montréal

This feature documentary is a fascinating and spirited portrait of the life and times of the legendary Quebec politician and four-time mayor of Montreal Camillien Houde. Using rare archival footage and interviews with ex-colleagues, aides and friends, the film presents a comprehensive profile of this incredible, and, to some, infamous, man.

1976-01-01 | en

My Name Is Susan Yee

Young Chinese-Canadian Susan Yee gives a tour of Montreal.

1975-01-01 | en

La Coupe Stanley à Montréal en 1993

2008-01-01 | fr

The Street

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.

1996-02-27 | en