It wasn’t easy growing up under the elegant and enigmatic Pierre Trudeau. In JUST WATCH ME, we meet eight people from across the country who did: Anglo and Franco, separatist and federalist, idealist and realist. People whose personal and national dreams are intertwined. They are the Trudeau generation--Canadians who grew up during the '70s, like director Catherine Annau, who looks at the lasting effects of Trudeau’s audacious attempt to reconfigure the idea of Canada. This hip documentary travels across the country, its inspired cinematography showing us places we thought we knew--from the snowdrifts of Iqaluit to the towers of Calgary--in a whole new light. And it’s all to the sounds the Trudeau kids grew up with: BTO, Bran Van 3000, Harmonium and Mitsou. Most of all, this is a love story that takes us into the heart of an era and the hearts of the people who will shape Canada’s future--the Trudeau generation.

Source: Library and Archives Canada - Canadian Feature Film Database (LAC)

This highly controversial film, produced in 1970 by Denys Arcand and a group of filmmakers, takes a look at the Québéc textile industry, focusing on three main themes: factory shutdowns, the day-to-day life of factory workers, including the illnesses they contract (industrial deafness, pulmonary emphysema), and finally, the strikes and fights led by the workers to improve their lot. (The original version, 173 min long, was released in 1976.)

Source: Library and Archives Canada - Canadian Feature Film Database (LAC)

Monumental and engaging, STOLEN MOMENTS takes you on a voyage through three centuries of gay life. Acclaimed filmmaker Margaret Wescott weaves together the lost threads of history: from the unique lesbian cultures of Amsterdam, Paris and Berlin, steeped in traditions of passing women, seductresses and relationships that lasted decades, to the more recent North American Meccas of Montreal, Vancouver, New York, and San Francisco. Highlights of lesbian culture from times gone by are combined with incisive, personal commentary on contemporary struggles surrounding sexual politics and feminism, life and love. Olympic athlete Betty Baxter, stand-up comic Georgia Ragsdale, and writers Nicole Brossard, Joan Nestle, Leslie Feinberg, Judy Grahn and André Lorde all share their insights on the courage and passion, the challenges and triumphs, that mark the lesbian experience. STOLEN MOMENTS is about personal testimony of past and present courage and passion; about re-enacted moments from lesbian history; about yesterday’s oppression and today’s resistance; about song and dance, ritual and performance...about crossing boundaries. Giving voice to stories that have been scattered or buried, rendering a shadowy history visible, STOLEN MOMENTS chronicles the past--and future--of lesbians in society.

Source: Library and Archives Canada - Canadian Feature Film Database (LAC)

Four guys are on their own to face a future after many years at a friendship centre. They've robbed and beat people, used and dealt in drugs. The're tough but hurt and vulnerable at the same time, experiencing occasional flashes of lucidity, because in front of the camera, they find they can talk. Their words are crass, frank and shocking. So are the pictures, which aptly capture their hellish world. SEUL DANS MON PUTAIN D'UNIVERS gives a voice to a generation whose violence was simply an expression of the total disarray, a people in crisis. This is what makes the movie so powerful, mixing realism, sensitivity and compassion to peer into the souls of modern-day youth and shake up our indifference.

Source: Library and Archives Canada - Canadian Feature Film Database (LAC)

Rosaire is a deeply religious man who lived at a time when things were different, in a Quebec that no longer exists. He guides us through this documentary that reveals the lives of First Nations peoples.

Source: Library and Archives Canada - Canadian Feature Film Database (LAC)

How do we get along with each other when our views collide? A timely question that is both universal and crucial. This film takes on this challenge, and their confrontation redefines tolerance. These four friends have the same goals: human dignity and social justice. They are inspired by love of country, but each adopts an approach radically different from the others'. Muslim, Christian, or non-religious, their visions of society range from wanting a secular or socialist state to an Islamic one. But these four women won't demonize one another or treat one another with disdain. They listen to one another's views and argue openly, without ever breaking the bond that unites them - and they laugh through it all. Deeply committed, these four women, together, are the living antithesis of political correctness. Amina, Safynaz, Shahenda and Wedad have not accomplished all their political goals; they are not complacent in their self-assessment. At the stage in life when one tries to make sense of it all, these four Egyptian women are not triumphant - they're joyful.

Source: Library and Archives Canada - Canadian Feature Film Database (LAC)