The Mechanics of Borders

Marie-Philip is a PhD student and part-time professor who loves cats and Harry Potter. But one week before her 29th birthday, she is diagnosed with breast cancer. For a year, without false modesty, we follow her through each step as she confides in us with shocking honesty. An ode to life, to courage and to the resilience of all those who fight every day against disease.

We watch from behind as a person with a sling bag walks through the night, before melting among her peers in a refuge, in Mexico, welcoming those women and men who are fleeing a political situation, an economic impasse enriching organised crime. It is of little matter where these migrants come from, as it is, above all, a matter of staying alive and avoiding the gangs that keep an eye on the long path to exile. However, everyone knows the goal: to get into the north of the continent, the United States or Canada, at all costs, aboard goods trains, which they hang onto dangerously. In complete immersion, Hubert Caron-Guay filmed this last chance voyage in which waiting contends with anguish, even though solidarity is tangible at times, like in the sequence where a man enjoins his companions in misfortune to “run at the same speed as the train”, otherwise, death is certain.

Co-directors Hubert Caron-Guay and Serge-Olivier Rondeau follow migrant workers through the steps in the hiring process of a community-based employment assistance organization. The filmmakers highlight the migrants’ difficult path by capturing conversations between the future employees and the recruiters. Through images shot on a body camera and a minimalist observational approach, the film exposes harsh and poignant realities. It draws parallels between the changing of the seasons and the cycle of the cattle industry that begins with animals being raised and cared for at a ranch and ends with them being sent to the abattoir grimly looming in the background. Ressources is a sobering and thought-provoking work that gives a voice to those who are at the heart of the food system that sustains this country.

After 16 years together, François and Julie open their relationship to explore sexual adventures and self-discovery. With two kids and their bond at stake, the path proves more complex than expected.

Ron recites a poem by Baudelaire from a book he's found on the street. Ti-Red, fresh out of prison, combs every inch of the district in search of his homeless native girlfriend. Marco and Rob, high on crack, have to figure out how to get more money. Daguy, a homeless artist, who has been camping out at the Occupy Montreal camp, wants to find a place to sleep out of the cold. Meanwhile, a spontaneous demonstration is raging in town to protest yet again against the murder by the police of a homeless man. This film retraces the trajectory of seven men in downtown Montreal, the body being their only tool in their attempt to remain alive with some dignity.

This film traces a geography of the soul of ten men whose spirit flickers above the contemporary wreckage of life.